Museums: What a Country Wants Visitors to Know about Itself

One of my immediate priorities when I reach a new destination, whether it be a new town, city or country, is to visit the museum. It doesn't matter if it’s a small room dedicated to a local industry, or a lofty palace emphasising the struggles of a nation to reach its current embodiment. Museums are the perfect place for foreigners to learn about a new location. 

In 2023, I had the distinct pleasure of residing in Southeast Asia for 10 months. I was completely alone for the first time in my life, embarking from my home city of Melbourne into a wide region of rich, diverse cultures and new experiences which provided me an extraordinary perspective of the world beyond Australia. 

The museums of Southeast Asia are some of the greatest I have ever visited, not just for their historical value, but for the in-depth insight I was provided about what these countries wanted me to know about them. These venues of education and experience don’t just convey the story of a people to become one country, but the value of this story to said people and the overwhelming sense of pride they all feel when united. 

I’d like to share with you the lessons I learned from the museums I visited in 2023, in order to reveal what each of these countries wanted a foreigner like me to understand about their history. 

Singapore - An Unlikely Triumph 

The National Museum of Singapore is right next door to the university which taught me during my 4-month exchange in the city-state. House in an opulent colonial mansion right in the heart of the vibrant city, the Singapore’s temple of history shows visitors the cost of Singapore’s success. 

For every artefact of founding father Lee Kwan Yew’s, there are the belongings of innocents who had been victimised by Japanese soldiers during the occupation. For every one of Raffles’ maps, there is an opium pipe showing the sever price of maritime trade and addiction. The success which the Museum’s exterior came at a cost, and the museum shows visitors like myself how that cost has been payed throughout the years. 

Like many other visitors, I was eager to see the Singapore which has dazzled foreigners. Clean streets, law-abiding citizens, perfect public transport, the luxury of one of the globe’s most desired countries. But the National Museum of Singapore provided me with an intense understanding that the luxury of Singapore was forged through struggle. In spite of unlikely conditions, Singapore blossomed into the thriving hub of culture, business and trade by learning from the forefathers who had built the county, brick by brick. 

This I have applied when walking the streets of my own city. I constantly ask myself; who built Melbourne? What struggle did they go through? How can I learn from them to make a better city? These questions, which Singapore’s Museum communicates to visitors, I hope will empower me to make my own city as vibrant and successful as Singapore one day. 

Vietnam - The pain my country caused 

One could be forgiven for missing the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City when first passing its exterior. Lined with tanks, helicopters and weapons of war, this venue of history looks more like an armoury at primary glance. However, you soon realise that these intimidations creations of conflict are the museum, the tools through which Vietnam came to be liberated. 

I had learned about the Vietnam war in school, history lessons about Australia’s involvement in the conflict at the price many young men, drafted against their will, had paid in the jungles of Indo-China. I had my guard up initially, half prepared to ignore all that I was going to see as propaganda, or a skewed perspective. 

But this perception of the museum was grossly mistaken. I was humbled by the fair and even-handed account of the war which the museum had provided. There were no accusations, no total condemnation of country or attack against myself. But instead a full account of the horrors which Vietnam had endured in the twentieth century. I saw faces of Australian protestors, which the museum praised for their courage in standing up to the draft, as well as the faces of young men, like myself, which the museum stressed had not invaded their country because of their own blood-thirst, but because they had been forced to. 

The pain my country had caused was present in Vietnam. I can see it now in my own city too. But the fairness in the museum’s account humbled me. If we could all be this even-minded, we would have a far greater understanding of our place in the world. 

Cambodia - How History Changes 

It was a beautiful, sunny day when I approached Cambodia’s National Museum in Phnom Penh. The gorgeous red building stunned me in the  morning glow, an architectural marvel surrounded by lush gardens which drew me in. 

The museum’s inside is packed with statues, tablets and stone carvings of great men, religious figures and icons of culture, none placed behind glass or a window, but open in the air for all to observe. These statues come from across Cambodia’s long history. Long one religions and peoples, whom time has erased, still proudly stand within the halls of the National Museum, creating a long line of continuity for all to follow and understand what shaped the nation. 

Coming back to Melbourne, I am now more aware of the long journey that locations must go through in order to become what they are today. What came before me and what has been forgotten? Cambodia’s National Museum spells out this long journey to visitors, not allowing anybody to be forgotten or denied their place in its story. 

Malaysia - The Impact of Visitors 

Malaysia’s National Museum in Kuala Lumpur covers the regions entire history, from the primitive days of cavemen to the sparkling modernity of the Petronas Twin Towers. This venue of learning lets visitors see the mark that each wave of immigration and visitors left upon the city. 

From the tribes people who walked through Thailand to reach the Malayan Coast, to the Europeans who sailed seas to reach the East, Malaysia’s museum brings us to the modern multicultural society which the country reflects today. Foreigners can see that countries like Malaysia aren’t created in a bubble, but are forged through interaction, conversation, exchange and respect. 

Melbourne, much like Malaysia, has been forged by many people from many cultures. I can see this far more clearly now. The sum of the countries parts is honoured by Malaysia’s National Museum, paying tribute to all those brave travellers who had come before. 

Museums: A Necessity for Travellers 

All foreigners should visit a museum when exploring a new country. These halls of history are far beyond long corridors of statues and artefacts, but reveal the spirit of a country, how it came to be and what values visitors should take home with them. 

Let these places shape you, inspire you and provide you with ideas to better your own home. Museums tell the stories of countries, and these lofty stories are well worth telling.