OPERATION OF AN ECOMUSEUM

The diverse achievements of the Living Museum in 1999 demonstrate the on-going success of the ecomuseum model as a means to foster community-focussed cultural, environmental and heritage activities in the region. While always stretching the definition of a museum in the traditional sense, the ecomuseum enables local people to take a meaningful role in the research, documentation, interpretation and presentation of the history, culture and environment of their local area. As such, the ecomuseum is primarily directed to the 'sense of place'.

A recent survey and analysis of ecomuseums by Peter Davis ('Ecomuseums: A Sense of Place', Leicester University Press, U.K. 1999) provides a succinct explanation:

The concept of the ecomuseum evolved in France in the late 1960s and has since been adopted as a new form of museum throughout Europe and as far afield as Brazil, Canada and Australia. Ecomuseum philosophy embraces all aspects of cultural heritage, including tangible features such as archaeological sites, objects, buildings and the natural environment, and the intangible qualities of collective memories, oral traditions and folklore. The activities of ecomuseums take place within a defined geographical area or territory. Central to the ecomuseum ideal is the close involvement of local communities in the process of caring for their heritage, so providing local people with an opportunity to conserve and exhibit the unique aspects of their locality. Traditional museums face many problems when attempting to encapsulate the special nature of places, and in empowering local communities; ecomuseum philosophy and practice has provided a means of overcoming these ideological strictures.

The Living Museum has possibly taken the concept even further (although other examples can be found) by integrating contemporary art forms - and artists - into the process of interpretation. Libby McKinnon's work with the Museum is a case in point - it is simultaneously an interpretation of the environment, a unique visual art form, and in most cases a program of community cultural development as the participation of members of the community in the design and implementation of the works is a critical element.

Projects have been generated from both within and outside the Living Museum's organisational structure, but in both cases the community is part of the process. An example of the internally-generated project is the 'Hear Our Voices' exhibition - the idea was developed by a staff member (Helen Laffin) who identified funding, prepared submissions and curated the project. However, the conception of the idea grew from interaction between Museum staff and women in the local area following on from an earlier oral history and radio program. In the preparation of the exhibition, the featured women contributed their ideas, words and images and influenced the final product through constant feed-back.

An example of the externally-generated project is the Refugee Week program - motivated by the desire of participants in Migrant English groups to make a contribution to their environment. In this case we provided a venue and support for a project, to help plant and regenerate sheoak woodland, instigated and carried out by other community organisations - MRC and AMES. It also created an on-going feature that others may enjoy.

In both cases it is not only the product (exhibition or regenerated sheoak woodland) that provides an interpretation of the region's heritage, but also the process of carrying them out.

In 1999, environmental matters have been prominent in our program, examples being the 'Women Caring for the West' environment seminar, tree planting, the work of the 'Groovy Garden Team', the 'Maribyrnong River People' oral history project and heritage and archaeology surveys. This is completely appropriate to the activities of an ecomuseum as one of the principal aims is the understanding of the interrelationship between people and their environment.

Another stream in 1999 which has been an important evolution for the ecomuseum process has been in terms of the built environment. The fragmented or decentralised nature of the ecomuseum encapsulates the sense that the museum 'collection' lies throughout the geographical territory of the region, rather than in glass cabinets or storage areas of a monolithic museum building. So the historic buildings, sites and cultural places identified, mapped, photographed and recorded in the various heritage studies are part of the museum collection. The fact that they are also identified by a community-activated process further demonstrates the fundamentals of the ecomuseum ideal.

It is this constant reworking of the ecomuseum concept with a community museum approach that leads to a process and range of activities that is sometimes hard to attribute to any easily definable source. We have developed the concept of 'associates' to try and convey the ripple effect and participatory nature of the museum. not only as a catalyst, but as a context that encourages the exchange of ideas. The following pages give a range of examples of people working in and around the Living Museum on their own projects and museum projects that all draw some inspiration and energy from the very existence of such a working concept within a park.

The role and support of Parks Victoria in the equation cannot be under-estimated. The encouragement and support of the management of Parks Victoria over a number of years has been crucial to the capacity of the Museum to take the concept as far as it has. Parks Victoria has not simply been supportive, it has participated and contributed to the concept of the ecomuseum as it has developed here in the western region of Melbourne.