The five-storey building known as the Emigrants’ Commission or ‘Dar l-Emigrant’ in Valletta, will in the coming years, be transformed into a museum highlighting 200 years of migration history.
Mgr Philip Calleja, the mind behind the project, explains this will not be a simple museum but a link between past and future Maltese generations and a place which unites Maltese people in their homeland and others in Australia, Canada, USA, the Mediterranean and Northern Europe.
It is to be called ‘Museum for Migration and Visitors’ Centre’. The Emigrants’ Commission presented the idea at the Convention of Leaders of Associations of Maltese Abroad and of Maltese Origin, some weeks ago and it was adopted by the Convention.
Mgr Calleja told The Malta Independent that the plan is to open the museum by 2012. In the meantime, he is calling on the public to submit documentation and photos which can be exhibited. Material showing special occasions, books published by Maltese authors, and information on successful people are to be donated to the museum for it to be able to depict as vivid a picture as possible.
Currently, Mgr Calleja and his team are working on three aspects: The structural part; material and data compilation; and the financial aspect.
‘Dar l-Emigrant’ is situated just outside the Upper Barraka Gardens and overlooking the Grand Harbour, the starting point for tens of thousands who left Malta in search of a better life elsewhere. The Commission’s roof garden will therefore be embellished and binoculars will be available for visitors to have a closer peep at the Grand Harbour.
The auditorium will be showing audiovisual material marking the history of Maltese migration, highlighting its peak and how it came to a gradual end by the seventies.
Another room will be dedicated to digital information on reciprocal agreements between Malta and migrant hosting countries as well as a vast array of information covering any imaginable aspect.
The historical and data compiling aspects will be focusing on people’s circumstances rather than the numbers of people who left the islands. The museum will tell stories of many men who had to leave their wives and children behind until they settled abroad and prepared the way for their families. The number of men who emigrated was much higher than that of women and many Maltese women in their homeland could not get married because of the shortage that was created.
“This is a human story,” Mgr Calleja said. Many had left Malta with nothing whatsoever in their pockets but worked hard and succeeded.
In fact, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar was Maltese, and so was the Australian Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mgr Calleja explained.
Maltese people living abroad issued newspapers and held radio shows; they set up organisations such as scout groups and offered financial assistance to Maltese families who wanted to migrate.
People of Maltese origin are found in many countries around the world and mainly in principal destinations where European emigration started as from the middle of the nineteenth century. These countries include, among others, various countries in Northern Africa such as Libya, Tunisia and Algeria, England, France, Spain, Turkey, apart from Australia, Canada and America. Various studies have concluded that the number of people of Maltese origin living in these countries and others surpasses that of the population of the Maltese islands.
To date, thousands of migrants and their children visit their relatives in Malta every year keeping links strong and alive.
The Emigrants’ Commission is taking up the initiative to set up this museum in the context of the active and central contribution that it has been making for several years towards assisting emigrants setting off from Malta. As a result, it has extensive memorabilia. These include both official and non-official documentation, photos, newspapers from various countries, objects, certificates, personal and general records, stories and letters.
However, other documents and items donated by individuals will make the museum even more interesting. Services or financial assistance are also necessary as substantial funds are required to set the project rolling. The plan is for the museum to be self-funding in the future.
School children and Maltese living abroad will then be able to visit the museum and learn about a subject marking a substantial part of our recent history and the people who made a name for Malta abroad.
Source:independent.com.mt/
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