The Museum of Revolution

View of Gallery, Museum of Revolution

Monday afternoon, the first day of the Field School, our group visited the Museum of Revolution, just across the road from the National Museum of History.

The Museum is an old French colonial building set out on two floors.

The galleries set out the twentieth century struggle for Vietnamese independence and contained many artefacts, photographs and relics from the Revolution.

Our discussion focused on the use of voice in the museum -- the active and authoritative museum voice verses the passive museum visitor. We asked: What possibilities would a community-driven approach bring to the galleries? This raised some interesting questions about resources, re-display, labelling and oral history projects, and how debates around community voice raise questions about a surfeit of memory (or potential crisis). How could these voices be brought to be bear on a new generation of Vietnamese to capture the spirit of their forefathers?

Graeme Were