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E-book Practicing Decoloniality in Museums : A Guide with Global Examples
Colonialism was not just a historical policy concerning the domination of other territories and their peoples. It included racial and racist ideologies to ‘legitimize’ such domination, the suppression of aspects of identity such as language and traditions, and the propaganda of a Western system of knowledge. Nations, organizations, companies, and individual actors were all involved in differing ways in the broad system of colonialism. It is thus a multi-tentacled entity that continues to inf luence and affect many aspects of the world today. In the words of Elizabeth Edwards, “the colonial is not merely a question of continuity or rupture, of inf luence or appropriation, but a presence that is all-saturating, overf lowing, ever-present, persistent and fundamental to the experience of contemporary life.”1 It is also thoroughly entangled with the institution of the museum. Colonial exploitations of living beings and resources, theories of racial evolution, notions of civilizing and educating lower classes – all of these and more are cemented into the very foundation of the museum institution. Not only is the concept of the modern museum institution a colonial inheritance, but indeed, many collections, some museum buildings, and even older exhibitions are direct remnants from the colonial era. Colonial perspectives can also be read in today’s systems of cataloguing and categorizing.Since the colonial roots of the museum are so deep and wide-spread, decolonization is not just a matter for ‘colonial museums’ in the narrowest sense. Colonialism is a societal problem, not merely a problem for museums. As a result, whereas overt coloniality may be restricted to a portion of all the world’s museums, decolonizing is relevant to all museums, even brand-new institutions. Decolonizing the museum has regularly been synonymized with the restitution of objects. Though important, this is only one small area where the museum needs to be severed from its colonial ties. That is why we choose to speak of practicing decoloniality: a process and a mode of thought that goes deeper into untangling the present-day colonial hooks from the museum. Beyond object repatriation, this could entail changed narratives and word usage in exhibitions, different hiring policies, new educational programs, and above all an awareness of colonial inheritances and problems that are openly discussed and highlighted.
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