Museums and the Epistemology of Injustice: From Colonialism to Decoloniality

Vawda, Shahid

doi:10.1080/13500775.2019.1638031

Cited by 37 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Received In terms of materiality and the digital in museums, there is much work to do to break old binaries of representation, systemic racism, and Westernized and imperialist structures. See Lonetree 2012;Fischer et al 2017;Vawda 2019;Chipangura and Chipangura 2020. Rites or rituals are formalized or performed ceremonial acts, arising either from long secular tradition or sacred orders, see Schechner 1993;Bell 1997. 5 UNESCO, 'China and the 2003 Convention'.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radical Intangibles: Materializing the Ephemeral

Kenderdine

Hibberd

Shaw

2021

M and S

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New materialism considers that the world and its histories are produced by a range of material forces that extend from the physical and the biological to the psychological, social and cultural. In recognizing that heritage is not held in objects alone, new materialism discourses echo definitions of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) enshrined in the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. While museums understand the weight of responsibility when engaging with communities of practice, many still restrict the representation of archived ICH material to oral histories, object biographies, video and audio recordings of songs and performing arts. The technical complexities of archiving the ‘live’ perpetuate nineteenth-century museum display conventions, such as fixed-point perspectives and linear approaches to representation. To address this gap, we introduce ‘computational museology’, which brings a systems thinking approach to 'whole of environment' encoding. Such a framework unites, for instance, artificial intelligence with data curation, and ontology with visualization, as well as embodied participation through immersive and interactive interfaces. The implications of such a framework has yet to be fully theorized but it is evident that a new paradigm of materiality comprising ‘radical intangibles’ is taking shape in museums, which signals a break with both Western historiographic orthodoxies and hypothetical paradigms of tangible and intangible heritage. This article foregrounds the emergence of radical intangibles as crucial new digital materialities that are transforming reenacted and embodied practices, which we demonstrate in the discussion of two longitudinal curatorial projects based in China and Hong Kong: the first, 'Hong Kong Martial Arts Living Archive' (HKMALA) in collaboration with the International Goushou Association in Hong Kong, and the second, ‘Remaking Confucian Rites’ (RCR), undertaken in conjunction with Tsinghua University in Beijing. Both of these projects are significant for having taken up ‘technologies of corporeality’ – digital paradigms at the forefront of computer graphics, spatial and temporal modelling, and virtual reality. The powerful tools being developed across the two instances have begun to revolutionize ICH as a practice, a mode of transmission, and an object of study.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radical Intangibles: Materializing the Ephemeral

Kenderdine

Hibberd

Shaw

2021

M and S

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“…Nonetheless, it is important to note that calls for (re) questioning colonial collections in European Museums, and their biographies of movement and associated physical and cultural violence are mounting, challenging museums with looted collections to consider repatriation, and in some cases reparation (Hicks 2020;Mbembe 2021). This is happening parallel to the highly-contested discussions on reviewing the definition of a museum by foregrounding its civic role within societies and processes of decolonization and epistemic justice (Mataga 2018;Morin 2014;Sandahl 2019;Vawda 2019). What is emerging in these calls is the fact that museums need to reinvent themselves, integrate Indigenous epistemologies as key aspects of curating a new museology that inspires justice, enquiry, humanity, and recognition for all-a critical, and de-colonial museology (Lonetree 2012;Mignolo 2011;Rassool 2015bRassool , 2018Wrightson 2017).…”

Section: Confronting Colonial Legacies: Repatriation Restitution and ...mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…What is emerging in these calls is the fact that museums need to reinvent themselves, integrate Indigenous epistemologies as key aspects of curating a new museology that inspires justice, enquiry, humanity, and recognition for all-a critical, and de-colonial museology (Lonetree 2012;Mignolo 2011;Rassool 2015bRassool , 2018Wrightson 2017). However, as the calls for reconfiguration of museums with looted collections outside the African continent continue, questions still remain on what happens to colonial museumising processes on the African continent-whose histories of violence and racial biases are well documented (Dubow 2006;Rassool 2015b;Vawda 2019).…”

Section: Confronting Colonial Legacies: Repatriation Restitution and ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sepulcherised Objects and Their Decolonial Futures in African Museums: The “Robert Edward Codrington Collection” at the Zimbabwe Natural History Museum

Mataga

Chabata

Nyathi³

2022

Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals

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This essay builds on the emerging (museum) decolonizing perspectives to (i) explore the biographical details and modes of curation and classification to which “ethnographic”1 objects collected during the colonial era have been exposed; to (ii) foreground the complexities of inherited colonial museum processes embedded in African urban contexts; and, to (iii) consider alternative modes of engagement with ethnographic objects and local Indigenous communities to challenge the embedded regimes of care and the marginalization rendered to Indigenous epistemologies. One of the biggest questions facing museums in the world today is how to deal with the hordes of objects collected from various Indigenous communities and placed in museums far away from the communities who made and used them. Using the case of an “ethnographic” collection in a former colonial museum, we call for a paradigm shift in museum practices, and challenge the present state of affairs of museum curatorship. We then briefly suggest possible ways in which such museums can confront their imperial histories and unsettle their inherited regimes of care and representation. We call for museums to enter into conversations with communities, listening to them and effecting curatorial activities that re-center local ways of knowing, while embracing the complexities associated with such engagements.

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“…Museums and Acknowledging the Past .—At their conception, modern natural history museums in the West dealt in exoticism (Table 1). These museums displayed specimens and cultural objects forcefully extracted during colonial conquests of far-off lands, which were used to establish the need to “civilize” Indigenous peoples (Seth 2009; Roy 2018; Vawda 2019). While natural history museums have developed into multifunctional institutions that now serve a diverse array of disciplines, peoples, and purposes, they are grounded in these colonial origins and continue to benefit from the degradation of Indigenous cultures and centuries of unethical extraction (Turnbull 2007; Williams 2013; Abungu 2019).…”

Section: Geosciences Are Extractivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contemporary natural history museums are focused on the preservation of collections, research, outreach, and education. However, the ability of museums to achieve these goals has been hindered both by their origins in Western colonialism and the need for a proper redress of their history (Das and Lowe 2018; Vawda 2019; Kohlstedt 2020). Increased recognition of this historical context has led to an ongoing discussion of whether museums possess critical flaws and if they can, or should, be saved (e.g., Ahn et al 2020).…”

Section: Geosciences Are Extractivementioning

confidence: 99%

Our past creates our present: a brief overview of racism and colonialism in Western paleontology

Monarrez¹,

Zimmt²,

Clement³

et al. 2021

Paleobiology

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As practitioners of a historical science, paleontologists and geoscientists are well versed in the idea that the ability to understand and to anticipate the future relies upon our collective knowledge of the past. Despite this understanding, the fundamental role that the history of paleontology and the geosciences plays in shaping the structure and culture of our disciplines is seldom recognized and therefore not acted upon sufficiently. Here, we present a brief review of the history of paleontology and geology in Western countries, with a particular focus on North America since the 1800s. Western paleontology and geology are intertwined with systematic practices of exclusion, oppression, and erasure that arose from their direct participation in the extraction of geological and biological resources at the expense of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Our collective failure to acknowledge this history hinders our ability to address these issues meaningfully and systemically in present-day educational, academic, and professional settings. By discussing these issues and suggesting some ways forward, we intend to promote a deeper reflection upon our collective history and a broader conversation surrounding racism, colonialism, and exclusion within our scientific communities. Ultimately, it is necessary to listen to members of the communities most impacted by these issues to create actionable steps forward while holding ourselves accountable for the past.

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Museums and the Epistemology of Injustice: From Colonialism to Decoloniality

Cited by 37 publications

References 6 publications

Radical Intangibles: Materializing the Ephemeral

Radical Intangibles: Materializing the Ephemeral

Sepulcherised Objects and Their Decolonial Futures in African Museums: The “Robert Edward Codrington Collection” at the Zimbabwe Natural History Museum

Our past creates our present: a brief overview of racism and colonialism in Western paleontology

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