Museum Curator Mentor - Republic of the Marshall Islands

First Nations Museum Curator Mentor role - Republic of the Marshall Islands. Flights, accommodation and allowances provided.

About the Australian Volunteers Program

The Australian Volunteers Program connects a broad range of skilled Australians with partner organisations overseas, to support them to achieve their own development goals. The program is funded by the Australian Government, works across 26 countries and is committed to developing strong, collaborative and sustainable partnerships. Volunteering are well supported, with flights, accommodation and allowances and. For many the experience is a life changing opportunity. Volunteers share skills, learn new perspectives and connect with another culture.

Indigenous Pathways is an Indigenous-led part of the Australian Volunteers Program, that focuses on expanding and strengthening Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander involvement in international volunteering, by providing culturally safe, flexible and tailored support.

Assignment overview and objectives

The Alele Museum are seeking an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Museum Curator to support them to develop new exhibitions, mentor staff and increase public engagement. Based in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) is the Alele Museum, Public Library and National Archives is a non-profit corporation.

• The Museum component is dedicated to preserving the history and conserving the folk arts, traditional skills, historic accounts, artefacts, oral literature and other traditions of RMI.
• The Public Library component is the only public library in RMI, and is dedicated to meeting the informational, technological, and cultural literacy needs.
• The National Archives of Alele is dedicated to preserving historical documents and other forms of information for the RMI.

Alele’s overall mission is to promote lifelong learning for the Marshallese community, across all age groups. The organisation strives to ensure the population has access to a wide range of information, through a variety of formats such as books, documents, videos and online resources.

In 2022, Alele Museum partnered with the Australian Embassy to host an exhibition of masks from the Torres Strait Islands, showcasing their rich culture and heritage. There was much public interest and engagement, and the Alele Museum have since been interested in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of working, regarding museum curation, community engagement and public programming. Alele museum would like to host an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Museum Curator, who can volunteer to support the Museum’s staff and build capacity regarding curation, exhibitions and public engagement.

Allowances and support provided

The Australian Volunteers Program is committed to providing culturally safe, flexible and tailored support to ensure participants can make the most of their assignment. We welcome people from all backgrounds, including people living in urban, regional or remote areas, people with a disability and people from the LGBTIQ+ community. We recognise that everybody has different life circumstances and it can be challenging travelling away from home, so the program provides the following support:

• Accommodation
• Volunteer living allowance to cover the cost of meals and incidentals
• Return transport and flights from the volunteer’s home location (within Australia)
• Travel and medical insurance
• Access to 24/7 medical care and emergency assistance
• Preparing to volunteer briefing and in-country cultural context orientation
• Support from the program’s Indigenous Pathways Team