Written by: Ali Ibrahim Living overseas, far away from your place of birth, family, friends, culture, traditions and stories can be challenging and complicated. For me, as an Egyptian who recently came to Australia for study, interacting with people and ‘things’ from my culture is important to help me maintain my identity and feel connected to home. In Australia, Egyptians are a minority community scattered over a vast geographic area. This can be isolating, and finding cultural familiarities can be difficult. But I have found comfort in museums and the collections of my dispersed heritage. They have made me feel proud and closer to home in a way that I could not have imagined, prompting me to think about how museums can potentially play a crucial – though controversial – role in helping to bond lost generations of Egyptians with their unique heritage. My name is Ali Ibrahim, and I have been living in Sydney, Australia since 2021. I moved here to pursue a postgraduate degree in Museum Studies at the University of Sydney after having worked as a conservator in various museums across Egypt. I have also lived in…
Maintaining ‘Egyptian-ness’ Outside Egypt: How Can Museums Help?
August 5, 2023
