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Temporary Exhibitions
> Vision, Hope and Life
> Hope

Permanent Exhibitions
> Behind the Wall
> Impact
> Immigration & Settlement
> Forum Gallery
> Memorial Wall
> Reconciliation Plaque

Behind the Wall

The buildings that now house the Migration Museum were once Adelaide’s Destitute Asylum. In one of these buildings an exhibition titled Behind the Wall tells the stories of the women and children who lived and sometimes died here. The complex operated from the early 1850s until 1918. During this time Adelaide’s destitute, homeless, sick and aged lived out their lives here. We glimpse their stories from the little that is left.

Before the Destitute Asylum the same site held a ‘Native School’. Aboriginal children were boarded and educated by the colonial government. The first section of Behind the Wall introduces us to some different perspectives of the school at the time it was operating. One of the walls from the school building still stands and is part of the Museum today.