A new exhibition exploring the role that local businesses play in migrant and refugee communities in Melbourne opens at Immigration Museum on 21 August 2011.
Open for (more than) Business features photographs, stories and a documentary exploring the notion that many local businesses run by people from migrant and refugee communities offer more than just a service. They can act as community hubs and provide links to a homeland while also helping recently arrived migrants establish a connection with their new home.
Seven local businesses from around Melbourne are featured in Open for (more than) Business, ranging from long- established businesses with rich histories to recently established businesses from relatively new migrant communities. The exhibition provides an insight into the rituals and interactions of these businesses that have enabled them to play the role of cultural hubs, offering connections between old and new migrants and allowing the sharing of stories and experiences.
The businesses featured in the exhibition include:
- Casa di Perla, a bomboniere shop set up by Greek migrants in the 1950s.
- Café Scheherazade, a cafe in St Kilda that served comforting Eastern European food from 1958 to 2008.
- Vittorio’s Barbershop, which has been operating for fifty years since the early 1960s.
- Insegna, a multi-lingual book shop established in 1975.
- Truspice, an Indian grocery store known to many as the first of its kind in Melbourne.
- Rezah Afghan Kebab, a family-run Afghan restaurant.
- Lalumba African Restaurant and Café, a new African restaurant.
All of these businesses have become an important part of Melbourne’s cultural identity and assisted new migrants and refugees through a process of transition and resettlement. “They would come to Scheherazade straight from work at six o’clock and stay till 10. That was their home”, said Avram Zeleznikow, owner of Café Scheherazade.
While older businesses may start to retire, like Café Scheherazade, many new businesses begin and continue this important role in the community. “My cafe provides my customers with a unique home. They own it, it’s their place,” said Kear Both, owner of Lalumba African Restaurant and Café.
Open for (more than) Business was developed by artists Dr Erminia Colucci and Shweta Kishore, who have worked extensively with film and photography and are Chair’s of Multicultural Women in Arts. They are themselves migrants – Dr Colucci left her home in Italy as a young student and Ms Kishore arrived from India in 2000.
“As a migrant who arrived from India, I remember the unease of leaving my home combined with the trepidation of embracing a new culture,” said Ms Kishore. “I felt immensely relieved and emotionally settled when I discovered ‘Little India’ in Clayton and Dandenong. Both Erminia and I noticed similar emotional journeys being undertaken by other newly arrived migrants. We realised that businesses serve not only as a retail outlet but as a tangible connection with something that was left behind”, she said.
“These establishments offer a window to their own culture and encourage reciprocal cultural understanding for the wider community”, said Dr Colucci.
The Immigration Museum is inviting people to share their stories, images and videos of their favourite Melbourne- based local business. Visit the Immigration Museum Facebook page to post about a local business.
http://www.facebook.com/immigrationmuseum
Open for (more than) Business
21 August 2011 to 27 May 2012
Immigration Museum, 400 Flinders Street Melbourne
Adults $10, children and concession FREE