PPI member Dr Meghan Kelly is a senior lecturer at Deakin University in Visual Communication Design whose current interests investigate the intersection of design, museums and public pedagogies. One of the projects she has been involved in is the development of a community museum in the Kelabit Highlands of Borneo, Malaysia.

The Kelabit Community Museum Development, located in Bario, in the Highlands of Borneo, was initiated by the Kelabit people’s strong sense of need to preserve their cultural heritage. This understanding was bought on by an awakening of how their traditional tangible and intangible knowledge is being lost in the transformation of the Kelabit people by progress. The aim of the Kelabit Community Museum is to provide the opportunity for the Kelabits to assert their authority over the representation and commodification of heritage and associated knowledge of their region.

Since 2010, Deakin University has been in consultation with the Kelabit community to assist in the development of this project. A deepening understanding of the museum requirements has emerged through the consultation process. Currently under investigation are the curatorial requirements of the museum, governance and management of the resources, and creation of a strong infrastructure to support the development. In addition to this, there is a focus on the creation of concepts for the built environment and the visual communication design strategies to brand the museum and represent the projected identity of the community.

Public Pedagogies Institute member Debbie Qadri is involved in a number of community-based art projects.

Exquisite Me is an arts project she developed that explores the collective experiences, stories and representations of identities of young people in Sunshine and Brimbank. These experiences, stories and representations are explored during various art and writing workshops run by  community artist Debbie Qadri. The artwork and writing is displayed as a large collaborative work, in a number of venues in Sunshine, including Gallery Sunshine Everywhere. Some of the artwork and writing will be published in a zine format and also made into an artist’s book for the Sunshine Library. Workshops are held at schools, community groups and at Council facilities such as the Sunshine Library.

The project thanks the support and involvement of AMES (Adult Migrant Education Services), Marian College, Ardeer Primary School, Sunshine College, Sunshine Library and  Gallery Sunshine Everywhere.

The Exquisite Me Project and Gallery Sunshine Everywhere kindly acknowledges the support of the Brimbank City Council Community Grants Program.

For more information visit the project’s website.

(Images courtesy Debbie Qadri)

This is a national collaborative exchange project between universities and museums to engage post-secondary Humanities and Education students in experiential learning and citizenship 2011 – 2013. The project was initiated by PPI member Dr. Karen Charman.

This ambitious project partnered with a number of universities and museums/libraries across Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

Each site is working with a curriculum designed to embed post-secondary students in a museum and or library space.

The exciting challenge of this curriculum model is the capacity for adaptation from tertiary preparation programs at Victoria University and Deakin University to pre-service teacher education courses at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Charles Sturt University (CSU).

For more information visit the project’s website.