ABSTRACT
Opened in May 2009, the Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD) is a museum of social and political history located in the nationally listed heritage building, Old Parliament House (OPH), in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The Museum of Australian Democracy was conceptualised as a ‘constitution’ museum that would represent the creation and establishment of the Australian state (MoAD n.d.). The decision to change nomenclature from ‘constitution’ museum to ‘museum of democracy’ reflects the adoption of an expanded remit by which the museum sought to be inclusive of a more widely and less formally defined Australian experience of citizenship and to contextualise Australian democracy against historical and contemporary global trends. The name change has not distracted from the museum’s main focus, however, and it remains strongly committed to exploring the rights and obligations that are associated with the legal-political citizenship contract between the individual and the state that provides the basis for Australian citizenship, as awarded by the state, where the state is aligned directly with the nation. The museum’s focus on citizenship, the Australian Constitution, and constitutional transactions means that its approach to interpretation (in regard to both the house and its individual exhibitions) emphasises ‘constituted’ power, as that which extends – rather than challenges – typical affiliations between the museum and governmentality to engender a particular moral code and kind of behaviour within its visitors (Bennett 2006). The museum’s overarching obligation to educate Australians about their constitution and the nation’s parliamentary system and history risks further delimiting understandings about citizenship to a restrictive typology whereby individuals can only be categorised as citizens or non-citizens. A significant challenge for the museum is thus how to reconcile the fact that the Australian Constitution is identified by progressive law scholars as being without the capacity to account for, address, or define the contemporary experience of citizenship (Australian Citizenship Council 2000; Rubenstein 2000).
