Open AccessRemembering Bonegilla: The Construction of a Public Memory Place at Block 19
Author(s) -
Bruce Pennay
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
public history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1833-4989
pISSN - 1037-9851
DOI - 10.5130/phrj.v16i0.1021
Subject(s) - presentation (obstetrics) , interpretation (philosophy) , immigration , value (mathematics) , public history , recall , historic site , block (permutation group theory) , refugee , collective memory , media studies , history , sociology , public relations , political science , law , psychology , computer science , archaeology , cognitive psychology , medicine , geometry , mathematics , machine learning , radiology , programming language
This article traces the emergence of Block 19 Bonegilla as a heritage site. I examine shifts in official heritage value through three different heritage listings. I indicate how agencies, like the Bonegilla Steering Committee of which I am a member, are going about the task of interpreting the site using official, staff, resident and host society recall to explain the significance of the place. Disparate sources yield different insights into refugee and migrant arrival experiences, and we are trying to unravel the mix of stories that arise in a place that draws on living memory. We want to address host society experiences of post-war immigration. We want to attract and engage visitors. Such interpretation and presentation tasks involve us in constructing a public memory place