In recognition of altered global relations since colonial times, The Ethnographic Collections at the National Museum of Denmark has identified a need to redefine its role in society. The Ethnographic Collections explores new ways of activating old collections – ways which include contemporary collecting, co-curation and dialogue with the communities from where the collections derive. Through three recent projects, this paper revolves around questions such as: How can we make associations between the old collections and contemporary society? How do we prioritize when collecting the contemporary? And how do we ensure that community involvement not only challenges the authority of museums, but also informs museological practices in new and constructive ways?

In recognition of altered global relations since colonial times, the Ethnographic Collections at the National Museum of Denmark have identified a need to redefine their role in society. The Ethnographic Collections explore new ways of activating old collections – ways, which include contemporary collecting, co-curation and dialogue with the communities from where the collections derive. Through three recent projects, this paper revolves around questions such as: How can we make associations between the old collections and contemporary society? How do we prioritize, when collecting the contemporary? And how do we ensure that community involvement not only challenges the authority of museums, but also informs museological practices in new and constructive ways?Key words: Ethnography, representation, contextualization, partnerships, contemporary collecting, knowledge sharing, co-curation.

During the colonial period (1721–1953) Danish officials, arctic explorers and missionaries undertook major collecting activities in Greenland, with the National Museum of Denmark eventually becoming the holder of the world’s largest Arctic collection. Between 1982 and 2001 Denmark and Greenland engaged in extensive museum cooperation, resulting in the return of c. 35,000 archaeological and ethnographic artefacts from the National Museum of Denmark to the Greenland National Museum and Archives – a process that later became known as ‘Utimut’, the Greenlandic word for ‘return’. Greenlandic requests for repatriation date back nearly a century and have from the outset been inextricably associated with both the formation of museological institutions within Greenland and the overall political processes leading towards decolonization and the introduction of home rule in 1979. Using the colonial relationship between Denmark and Greenland as a point of departure, this article discusses the rationales behind the Greenlandic requests and the basic principles on which the repatriation partnership was carried out – principles based on an aim to divide the collection into two equally representative collections while at the same time acknowledging and respecting Greenlandic as well as Danish attachments to particular items. The Utimut process represents a partnership based on trust and mutual respect and has created the ideal platform for future museum cooperation between Denmark and Greenland. Furthermore, it may serve as a useful model to other indigenous peoples and decolonized states that have similarly lost their cultural heritage during colonial times but are committed to establishing museums of their own.

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