Migration Museum

✨Check out our website to find out more about what's on this month: https://migration.history.sa.gov.au/what-is-on/

Today marks the beginning of National Reconciliation Week. This year's theme is All In, a call for all Australians to commit wholeheartedly to reconciliation every single day.

All In makes clear that reconciliation is not a spectator sport and that all of us must step away from the sidelines and take action to make change.

The theme also reminds us that reconciliation and advancing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights isn’t a passive activity, and it is not solely the responsibility of First Nations people, who have carried the weight of championing, explaining and acting for far too long.

Reconciliation will not happen by itself, and it will not happen without all of us.

Spotlight on Immigration in the 20th Century 🔦

This exhibition showcases the rapid changes in South Australia, and Australia, through the twentieth century when mass migration schemes made us the multicultural country we are today.

You can explore a large graphic timeline, a continue your chronological journey through South Australia’s migration history in the twentieth century. Using personal stories and artefacts the displays highlight how changing government policies affected the lives of ordinary people. Some of the topics looked at include people living as ‘aliens’ under the ‘White Australia’ policy, juvenile migration schemes, displaced persons migrating post Second World War, British migration schemes, migrant hostels, and the gradual shift from a policy of assimilation to the realities of integration and then multiculturalism.

It's a busy month here at the museum with South Australia's History Festival! 👀 Be sure to visit the website to book your tickets! https://festival.history.sa.gov.au/

🏥Destitute Asylum Discovery Tour
🚶Migrant Heritage Walk
♟️Playtime in the Nineteenth Century
🪏Births, Burials and Bodysnatching
👩‍🍼Mothers and Babies of the Destitute Asylum
🌏History of Migration to South Australia
👰‍♀️From Exhibition to Altar: The Story of the Davey Family Wedding Gown

Bookings are required 🎟️

On Anzac Day we remember our troops who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations.

This postcard was sent from Cairo, Egypt to James Ralston of the Port Adelaide area on 16th December 1915. During WWI, Anzac troops were trained in Egypt prior to entering the Gallipoli peninsula and the Western Front. Egypt also served as a hospital base to treat wounded troops prior to their long voyage back to Australia and New Zealand.

Although presumably friends of Mr Ralston, we do not know the exact identity of the soldiers in this photograph; where they fought or their fate. This is often the case with many similar images from past conflicts. Today we remember all who served, even those whose names we don't know.

📷 Postcard, HT 1998.0412 b, State History Collection.

🖼️ Hasta La Raíz (to the root) is a photography exhibition by Carmen Alcedo, using layered digital and analogue collage.

Archival images and elements from her hometown of Sevilla are layered with portraits of her grandparents, nieces and her younger self, and contrasted with photographs taken over her four years of living here in Australia.

📍On display now at the Migration Museum until 28 June 2026
🎟️Free admission
👉 Find out more: https://migration.history.sa.gov.au/events/hasta-la-raiz-to-the-root/

Spotlight on In this place: a history of the Migration Museum site🔦

The buildings that now house the Migration Museum were once part of Adelaide’s Destitute Asylum. This site, which had been Kaurna land for millennia, was occupied by Europeans from the late 1830s. This exhibition tells the story of the site, from the early Native School Establishment, through the use as a Destitute Asylum, and later usage by the SA Government Department of Chemistry.

This exhibition is in the former Lying-in Home building, purpose built in 1878 to house expectant mothers. 1678 babies were born at the Destitute Asylum between 1880 and 1909, and we remember these children through a memorial artwork in the gallery. Touch-screen interactives allow visitors to explore some of the original documents used by the Destitute Board, and to investigate the stories of several families.

South Australia's History Festival program is out now! Pick up a copy at your local Drakes Supermarket or visit the website to view the online program 💻 There is a lot of fun, informative and sometimes spooky stuff in store at the Migration Museum during May:

🏥Destitute Asylum Discovery Tour
🚶Migrant Heritage Walk
♟️Playtime in the Nineteenth Century
🪏Births, Burials and Bodysnatching
👩‍🍼Mothers and Babies of the Destitute Asylum
🌏History of Migration to South Australia
👰‍♀️From Exhibition to Altar: The Story of the Davey Family Wedding Gown

Bookings are required. Visit festival.history.sa.gov.au to book!

Spotlight on Impact 🔦

In this exhibition, local artist Darryl Pfitzner Milika gives his take on South Australian history, illustrating what immigration and colonisation mean for Aboriginal people.

Darryl’s work is perhaps best summed up by his statement about his values: "I refuse to be assimilated or appropriated, allocated or intimidated; to have my intellectual or emotional faculties severed from my physical and spiritual being: my Aboriginality (and ultimately my humanity) will always find a campsite."

📷 On display in the Migration Museum are prints of Darryl Pfitzner Milika's original artwork