Caught between nationalism and internationalism : replicating histories of Antarctica in Hobart

• Main Authors: E Leane, T Winter, JF Salazar
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Antarctica; Hobart; urban heritage; replica; diplomacy; 200206 Globalisation and Culture; 210202 Heritage and Cultural Conservation; 950307 Conserving the Historic Environment; 959999 Cultural Understanding not elsewhere classified; Alfred Deakin Research Institute; 4302 Heritage; archive and museum studies; Antarctic; Endeavour; Gateway The; Deakin; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30081939; https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Caught_between_nationalism_and_internationalism_replicating_histories_of_Antarctica_in_Hobart/20887105

In December 2013, a replica of Mawsons Hut (a historic structure in Antarctica) joined a growing list of polar tourist attractions in the Australian city of Hobart, Tasmania. Initially promoted as the citys latest tourist hotspot, the replica museum quickly took its place in Hobarts newly redeveloped waterfront, reinforcing the citys identity as an Antarctic Gateway. The hut forms part of a heritage cluster, an urban assemblage that weaves together the local and national, the past and present, the familiar and remote. In this article, we examine the replica hut in relation to the complex temporal and spatial relations that give it meaning, and to which it gives meaning. Our focus is the hut as a point of convergence between memory, material culture and the histories-and possible futures-of nationalism and internationalism. We argue that the replica hut, as a key site of Hobarts Antarctic heritage tourism industry, reproduces and prioritises domestic readings of exploration and colonisation over a reading of Antarctic engagement as a transnational endeavour. However, like other gateway city heritage sites, it has the potential for aligning with a larger trend in international heritage conservation and heritage diplomacy, that of prioritising narratives of the past that weave together transnational connections and associations.