Minjungbal Museum and Cultural Centre: Revitalizing of an Australian Treasure

Nicole Rotumah, chair of the Tweed Aboriginal Co-operative Society Limited (Tweed Co-op), which ran the Minjungbal* Museum and Cultural Centre (MMCC) in Tweed Heads, Australia, and the museum manager, Tina Pidcock, were standing in the middle of their beloved museum looking at the worn flooring, dusty artifacts, general state of disrepair, and stark absence of visitors. It was August 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic had brought tourism to a standstill. However, both Rotumah and Pidcock knew that the museum’s problems ran far deeper than the absence of visitors during the current pandemic. They knew something had to be done to revitalize this Australian cultural treasure. The question was what. Was MMCC functioning in the museum, tourism, or cultural experience industry? Who were its main stakeholders and competitors? Was it correct to measure success according to revenue or the number of visitors, or was protecting cultural heritage a sufficient goal?

*Minjungbal is pronounced 'min-Yung-bull'.