ABSTRACT
It is a truism that museums have been drawn into debates about the past, its representation and ownership in unprecedented ways (Turner 2001, 2002; Britain 2001; Davidson 2000; Macdonald and Fyfe 1996; Linenthal and Engelhardt 1996, Kavanagh 1996). This recognition has reached beyond the field of museum studies. As other scholars note, ‘in our new century there is . . . a growing awareness of the use of museums as powerful institutions for shaping our sense of historical memory’ (Adams and Frances 2003: 62). Nevertheless, research in New Zealand and internationally has focused on some topics concerned with representation, ownership of the past and historical memory, to the exclusion of others. Much of the literature in museum studies analyses either indigenous concerns and anthropological collections, particularly in terms of colonialism and post-colonialism (Barringer and Flynn 1998; Simpson 1996; Dorward 1996; Coombes 1994), or the official histories of national institutions in the wake of late-twentieth century debates about the ‘nation’, national anniversaries and the importance of official collective memory (Neill 2004; McIntyre and Wehner 2001; Boswell and Evans 1999; Dubin 1999; Macdonald 1999; Handler and Gable 1997; Phillips 1996; Kaplan 1994).
