A history of Ireland down under: meet the Curator at Melbourne's Immigration Museum

A visitor to the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, Australia. Image: Museum Victoria

Did you know that 10% of Australians claim Irish ancestry, or that the wave of Irish settlers after the Great Famine came in big numbers from Clare and Tipperary?

Dr Moya McFadzean is the Senior Curator of Migration in the Humanities Department, at the Museum of Victoria's Immigration Museum. She's an expert in Australia's history of migration, and knows plenty about Ireland's role in forming modern Australia.

Here, she talks to us about the importance of family histories in the personal and national heritage of Australia, and the Irish connection with the country.

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1. Can you tell us a little bit about the Immigration Museum of Victoria and how you became interested in the field?

The Immigration Museum is one of three venues of Museum Victoria (the others being Melbourne Museum and Scienceworks, as well as the World Heritage-listed site, the Royal Exhibition Building).

The Immigration Museum opened in 1998 and explores the histories of migration to Australia, and the state of Victoria in particular, since European settlement to the present day. It also represents the impact of migration on Australian Indigenous peoples and grapples with complex historical and contemporary issues relating to the former White Australia policy, multiculturalism, asylum seekers and identity.

The Museum features stories and objects from Museum Victoria’s growing migration-related collections, as well as engaging with a diverse range of communities to develop exhibitions, programs, collections and events. Personal experiences of migration, settlement, identity formation and living in contemporary Australia are at the heart of the Immigration Museum and connect with all our visitors in powerfully emotional ways.

My own professional background has always focused on Australian history and my love for objects and personal stories has made museums the perfect places for me to share these interests with the public.

Migration is such an integral theme in Australian history that I feel very fortunate to have such a subject of both historical importance and contemporary relevance as my curatorial focus. It’s never boring – always complex, challenging, moving and at times controversial and will always be relevant to thinking about who we are as Australians, where we’ve come from and the nation we will become in the future.

2. How important is family history to Australians, and how does it shape personal and national identity?

A room filled with international passports at the museum. Image: Museum Victoria

Family history is an ever-growing interest in Australia, as in many other countries, and I think the search for one’s family origins is of particular significance to citizens of migrant nations.

Tracing family lineage is also crucial for Australian Aboriginal people especially in terms of land claims, recovering cultural heritage and finding families wrenched apart by decades of forced separation. Knowing where you came from and who your relatives were can shape one’s sense of self as well as provide insight into personal qualities, interests, skills and connections to place.

Ancestral links also provide a reminder that, unless you are Indigenous, that we all have come at one time from somewhere else, which is a great leveller – whether your ancestors were on the First Fleet, or arrived yesterday. It makes for a healthy understanding of who we are as a nation.

For me, my ancestry has a mix common in Australia of Irish, Scottish and English origins. I admit that I have spent so much of my working life researching, listening to and documenting other people’s stories that I have not much time and energy for my own!

I grew up with a strong sense of my Irish Catholic heritage imbued in me from an early age by my grandmother, whose birth mother was an Irish immigrant who arrived from around Tipperary early last century. My Gran read Joyce and Yeats, railed against the injustices inflicted upon Ireland by England, and talked fondly about the ‘Big Fella’ Michael Collins and enjoyed my own childhood obsession with Irish-Australian bushranger Ned Kelly.

My husband’s parents were both Dubliners who migrated to Melbourne in the 1950s and this year we will be part, quite by coincidence, of The Gathering 2013, spending six weeks travelling around Ireland and feeling, I have no doubt, a real cultural and spiritual connection.

3. A popular story goes that Irish prisoners made up a large proportion of the early European settlement in Australia. How true is that, and what role did Irish settlers play?

About 50,000 Australian convicts were of Irish origin, most rural people convicted of crimes like theft, arson, assault and perjury. In the 1840s and 1850s, many offences were directly related to the deprivations of Ireland’s Great Famine.

Most free migrants preferred North America or Great Britain to the long and expensive voyage to Australia. Nonetheless, between 1840 and 1914 more than 300,000 Irish people came here. Most migrants were Catholic and came from the counties of Clare and Tipperary. Many were young unmarried women, destined for domestic service or factory work.

Until World War I the Irish were the largest non-English community in Australia. Changing patterns of migration, as well as improving economic conditions in Ireland, meant that Irish migration in the 20th century declined in comparison to other nationalities. The Irish heritage, however, is still a strong influence on Australian culture and identity.

With 10% of Australians claiming an Irish ancestor, Australia has proportionately more people of Irish descent than any other place outside Ireland. Many fondly-held aspects of the Australian character such as egalitarian ideals and disdain for authority are commonly attributed to the ‘Irish rebels’ who came to Australia.

Peter Lalor, born in Laois, leader of the Eureka Rebellion and eventual member of Parliament. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Behind the mythology is a complex history of the Irish-Australian experience. Most Irish immigrants were Catholic but there were minorities of Anglo-Irish and Irish Protestants. There were lawyers and labourers, urban academics and the rural poor. The influence of Irish migrants was greatest in Victoria. The gold rush coincided with the final years of famine, the breakdown of the independence movement in Ireland, and an exodus of educated and politicised Irishmen to Melbourne.

Self-government and land use were critical issues at the time, and Irish immigrants such as Peter Lalor, leader of the Eureka Rebellion in 1854, and Charles Gavan Duffy, advocate for small landholders, played leading roles.

But Irish Catholics were not easily accommodated into Australian society. Anti-Irish sentiment continued well into the 20th century. The Catholic education system fostered a sense of Irish community but it also entrenched religious and social divisions. St. Patrick’s Day promoted an exclusively Irish Catholic identity. However, a surge in family history research, declining sectarian prejudices and increasing expressions of Irish-Australian experiences through film, television and literature, have all contributed  to the recognition of the Irish in Australia.

4. Irish migration to Australia has been on the rise over the past few years. How does it compare historically to other mass migrations?

The current economic crisis in Ireland is resulting in another generation of Irish emigrants. Many Irish people today are part of a new diaspora which is defined by mobility and work skills. They have the same desires as earlier migrants but their lives are more fluid, as they move between Ireland and a host of other countries, including Australia, in pursuit of economic and social opportunities.

5. How easy is it to trace family history? Are records accurate and easy to access? 

How easy it is to trace family history in Australia really depends on where your ancestors came from, when and how much information you already have, such as a family and a ship name and a port of arrival.

In terms of people who migrated from the UK, the various state Public Record Offices holds records from the beginnings of colonial Australia until today, including pre-1923 passenger lists.

The National Archives of Australia is the central repository for Australian Commonwealth Government records and holds information on immigration, naturalisation and military service, as well as post 1923 passenger lists. Libraries, local councils and historical societies are all useful repositories of historical records.

6. You're currently showing the 'Leaving Dublin' exhibition by photographer David Monaghan. What's the reaction been like, and what's next for the museum?

Image: David Monahan

The public response to the Leaving Dublin exhibition has been extremely positive. Visitors overwhelmingly comment that David’s photographs are beautiful and highly evocative, and the video produced by the Museum featuring nine of the photo subjects who came to Australia is proving very popular.

Our visitors always enjoy the personal insights into people’s experiences and these nine Irish expatriates offered very honest, humorous, even sad reflections on why they left Ireland, some with hopes to one day return. The Museum also created a space where visitors can deposit their own photos of leaving homeland and record their own stories which become part of the exhibition.

The Irish Festival held soon after the exhibition opened attracted over 1,500 people and a summer holiday Kids Festival also has an Irish theme.

In terms of exhibitions, the Immigration Museum continues to enjoy the success of the Identity: yours, mine, ours long term exhibition which opened in 2011 and looks forward to a new exhibition, developed with the Powerhouse and Islamic Museums of Australia, which will replace Leaving Dublin in October 2013 about Muslim-Australian women in fashion and design.

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You can find out more about the Immigration Museum of Victoria at the museum's website.