Australian National Maritime Museum invites audiences to explore belonging in new immersive project
Australian National Maritime Museum
Who We Are/What We Carry asks visitors to consider the people, objects and experiences that shape contemporary Australia.
The Australian National Maritime Museum invites visitors to reflect on belonging through Who We Are/What We Carry, a new immersive project exploring the stories that shape contemporary Australia.
Drawing on personal storytelling, digital interaction and material from the National Maritime Collection, Who We Are/What We Carry asks a simple but powerful question: what makes us feel that we belong? Through two connected experiences, the project encourages visitors to consider how language, family, culture and treasured objects contribute to personal and collective identity.
The project brings together Who We Are, an immersive portrait experience based on the voices of contemporary Australians, and What We Carry, a large-scale digital encounter with objects connected to journeys and home. Together, the works reveal how individual stories contribute to an evolving portrait of Australia today.
The Museum worked with creative firm Junior Major to realise the project. Junior Major developed the two-part interactive concept, shaping a participatory portrait experience alongside an object-based encounter that explores what people carry, keep and connect with.
In Who We Are, visitors respond to questions inspired by interviews with a curated group of contemporary Australians. Their responses generate a unique composite portrait assembled from visual fragments representing thinking, seeing, speaking and feeling. As each completed portrait joins a projected wall, the installation becomes a living image of a society shaped by difference and connection.
What We Carry shifts the focus from self to others, using objects as a way into the stories people hold. Objects from the National Maritime Collection reveal stories that are deeply personal while speaking to broader experiences of memory, movement and belonging.
The things people carry, keep or leave behind tell us something about who they are. They hold memories of movement, settlement and home, and show how deeply identity can live in even the smallest objects.
The project sits within the Museum’s growing work in social cohesion, using maritime stories to create space for reflection, dialogue and connection. It reflects the Museum’s role as a place where different experiences can be shared, where difficult histories can be approached with care, and where visitors are invited to consider what connects us across difference.
Australian National Maritime Museum Director and CEO Ms Daryl Karp AM said the project reflects the Museum’s commitment to using maritime stories to open up conversations about belonging and the national story.
‘Australia’s story has always been shaped by movement, connection and exchange. Who We Are/What We Carry invites visitors to reflect on where belonging comes from: the people, places, cultures and objects that connect us, and the experiences through which we feel seen, accepted and part of something larger. It shows that belonging is not fixed or founded on sameness; it grows when we make space for different stories, listen with curiosity and recognise our shared responsibility to one another.’
Rather than offering a single definition of Australian identity, the project creates space for reflection on the lives and perspectives that continue to shape the nation. It recognises First Nations knowledge and custodianship, histories of migration and refuge, and the communities who continue to make Australia home.
Who We Are/What We Carry is free to the public at the Australian National Maritime Museum from November 12.
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For further information or for interview please contact:
Steve Riethoff e: [email protected] m: 0417 047 837