Migration Museum, Adelaide

The Migration Museum is a social history museum located in Adelaide, South Australia. It is one of the three museums operated by the History Trust of South Australia.^[3] It deals with the immigration and settlement history of South Australia, and maintains both a permanent and a rotating collection of works.

Migration Museum

The Migration Museum, from Kintore Avenue
Established	23 November 1986; 38 years ago (1986-11-23)
Location	82 Kintore Avenue, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
Coordinates	34.9198°S 138.6020°E / -34.9198; 138.6020
Type	Culture museum
Visitors	183,936 (2015–16)[1]
Curator	Corinne Ball [2]
Website	https://migration.history.sa.gov.au/

History

Founded as an initiative of the State government in 1983, and with the museum opening on 23 November 1986, the Migration Museum in Adelaide is the oldest museum of its kind in Australia.^[4] The museum aims to promote cultural diversity and multiculturalism, which they define as including aspects of ethnicity, class, gender, age and region.^[5]

The site is located on Kintore Avenue between the State Library of South Australia, the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide, in a complex of early colonial bluestone buildings set around a courtyard, including the city's former destitute asylum (from 1850 to 1918). Before this, the site was the location of the "Native School", which aimed to educate aboriginal children.^[6]

Features and program

The museum has a full program of activities including education programs for school groups, public events and family friendly fun.^[7] A memorial wall at the museum reflects an acknowledgement of the various communities who have sought refuge in Australia, while Settlement Square portrays the arrival of many families and individual settlers and a Reconciliation Plaque notes that the land on which the museum is built was first occupied by the Kaurna people.^[8]