Not many people know the second verse of the Australian national anthem and it's very rarely sung. But it includes a phrase which is both representative of the history of white settlement in Australia as well as ironic in light of the current attitudes of some:
"For those who've come across the seas, We've boundless plains to share ..."
But it's a line that also lies at the centre of a new, temporary light show at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
British convicts and early settlers, Jewish refugees, displaced persons from war-torn Europe, Ten Pound Poms, Vietnamese boat people and asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan – are just some of the fascinating mix of personal stories that form the basis of the Australian National Maritime Museum’s Waves of Migration. Launching on Australia Day, Waves of Migration is a thought-provoking eight-minute animated projection that weaves together Australia’s rich tapestry of migration stories.
The show premiered last year and won a silver MUSE Award for public outreach from the American Alliance of Museums. This year it has been enhanced with new content including the story of Gina Sinozich, a Croatian migrant artist. A new, specially composed soundtrack accompanying the show will be played on Pyrmont Bridge.
Gina and her family abandoned Croatia in 1956. After the Second World War, Croatia was absorbed into the Communist republic of Yugoslavia – life was hard and food was scarce. Gina and her family escaped quietly across the Italian border with nothing and arrived in Australia in 1957. At 70 years of age, Gina Sinozich started painting her recollections of the family’s migration and a number of these paintings are in the museum’s collection and are the inspiration for the new scene.
The light joins the museum’s 100-metre-long Welcome Wall and vast collection of more than 10,000 immigration artefacts, personal diaries, letters and photographs, as a lasting tribute to the millions of people who have emigrated from around the world to settle in Australia.
Waves of Migration starts on Australia Day, Sunday January 26th 2014, and runs nightly from 8.30pm-10.30pm until February 13th 2014. It is free, is suitable for all ages and is best viewed from Pyrmont Bridge and around the King Street Wharf area at Darling Harbour.
And in case you haven't heard the second verse of the Australian National Anthem, take time out to watch and listen here. This is around 7 minutes of the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The anthem starts at about 2m31s with Human Nature, then moves on to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Julie Anthony.
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For more information about the Lightshow at the Australian National Maritime Museum, visit www.anmm.gov.au/lightshow.
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