Exploring Culture and Connection: Our Visit to the Immigration Museum

Post Created 08 May 2025

A recent visit to the Immigration Museum in Melbourne proved to be a rich and meaningful experience for a group of participants from Onemda’s The Basin campus. The excursion offered a chance to learn more about Australia’s multicultural identity, the journeys that shape our nation, and the personal stories of migration from around the world.

The Immigration Museum explores the history and impact of migration through interactive exhibitions, personal artefacts, and multimedia storytelling. For Onemda participants, the visit was not just a cultural outing, it was an opportunity to expand their understanding of identity, community and diversity in a way that was accessible, engaging and inclusive.

Through thoughtfully curated displays, participants were able to explore questions like “Where do I belong?”, “What makes a home?”, and “How do different people experience change?”. These themes hold powerful relevance for adults with intellectual disability, many of whom face unique challenges around inclusion, belonging and navigating the world around them. The museum’s sensory-friendly approach and visual storytelling elements helped support different learning styles, allowing participants to connect with complex ideas at their own pace.

For people with intellectual disability, excursions like this are about more than education, they foster empathy, build confidence in navigating public spaces, and create opportunities for shared reflection and discussion. Participants learned not only about others' stories, but were encouraged to think about and take pride in their own.

The day at the Immigration Museum exemplified how inclusive environments can provide meaningful, enriching experiences that spark curiosity and connection. At Onemda, we’re committed to offering our participants opportunities to explore, discover and grow, and this visit was another fantastic example of that in action.