The role of public museums in a nation's mythmaking process (Perez de Cuellar et al, 1995: 188) has been highlighted in a recent UNESCO report which argues that government support for museums should be an increasingly important part of cultural policy. The policy significance of museums resides in their efficacy in recording and expressing publicly the distinctive identity of their chosen territory (local, regional or national) (Perez de Cuellar et al 1995: 188).

The importance of these cultural policy functions is evident from the statements of the planners and progenitors of two of the world's newest national museums - Canada's Museum of Civilization and New Zealand's Museum of New Zealand (now rebranded as Te Papa: Our Place). Among the functions claimed for the Canadian Museum of Civilization is the promotion of the cultural tolerance required for the maintenance of the Canadian confederation: to foster the mutual appreciation and cooperation among the cultural groups that make up Canadian society which is a necessary foundation for Canada to remain a single nation (MacDonald, 1992: 162).

Te Papa's role is more exemplary: it is to function as the personification of the nation. It will not only powerfully express the total culture of New Zealand (PDB 1991: 1) but, according to the Prime Minister responsible for its conception, it will also speak for New Zealand (Lange, 1985).

The nation-building functions of these new museums are essentially ideological. That is to say, these museums are designed to construct at the symbolic level a form of unity which embraces individuals in a collective identity (Thompson 1990: 64).

For these ideological functions to be discharged has required the development of massive new purpose-built facilities and the re-presentation of the national collections with the support of new technologies - video, interactives, virtual reality and so on - which are intended to communicate with the widest possible national audiences. Using these Canadian and New Zealand developments as examples, this paper examines the spatial character of these ideological institutions and the cognitive processes through which their visitors are expected to apprehend the articulation of tradition and nation, heritage and canon (Huyssen, 1995: 13).

CONTENTS
Museums as communications media.
Ideological Space in Traditional Museums.
Cognitive Space in Traditional Museums.
New Approaches to Ideological Space.
New Approaches to Cognitive Space.
The Character of the New Cognitive Space.

The role of public museums in a nation's mythmaking process (Perez de Cuellar et al, 1995: 188) has been highlighted in a recent UNESCO report which argues that government support for museums should be an increasingly important part of cultural policy. The policy significance of museums resides in their efficacy in recording and expressing publicly the distinctive identity of their chosen territory (local, regional or national) (Perez de Cuellar et al 1995: 188).