‘I can’t believe what you say because I see what you do’: museums’ equity rhetoric versus the experience of First Nations museum workers

A few minutes of unguarded conversation with a museum worker of colour will often reveal their institution's equity programs as 'illusions of inclusion' (Ballo et al., 2021, p. 34), elaborate mechanisms that protect institutional whiteness by using workers of colour as diversity symbols. This paper examines the material harms that result from the vast difference between how Australian museums portray their diversity, equity and inclusion commitments and the lived experiences of First Nations workers within these institutions. This fissure between rhetoric and action follows the pathway of other perceptual gaps between levels of museum hierarchy in Australia and abroad. One example comes from the recent Museums Moving Forward Workplace Equity and Organizational Culture in US Art Museums report (Benoit-Bryan et al., 2023), which reveals two troubling perceptual gaps. The data indicate that white museum workers have a far more positive view of diversity progress than do museum workers of colour. At the same time, museum leadership teams believe staff input influences decisions far more than staff feel they are listened to (Benoit-Bryan et al., 2023, pp. 18–19, 27). Together, these findings cast doubt on the prospects for museums' transformation. My research reveals experiential differences similar to those identified above. Interviews with First Nations workers in Australian museums expose an alarming disjuncture between institutions' positive equity rhetoric and workers' negative experiences. If this disjuncture is not addressed, Indigenous workers will continue to be burnt-out by the sector, leaving in doubt the possibility of true progress and equity in museums.