TY - JOUR

T1 - How to Practice Decoloniality in Museums

T2 - A review of Practicing Decoloniality in Museums - A Guide with Global Examples by Csilla E. Ariese and Magdalena Wróblewska

AU - Nielsen, Vibe

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - How is decoloniality practiced in museums around the world? In this review of Csilla E. Ariese and Magdalena Wróblewska's Practicing Decoloniality in Museums: A Guide with Global Examples from 2021, I present the key arguments and layout of the book and show how the challenges of museum decolonization presented by the authors are also evident in the South African museums and art galleries where I have conducted fieldwork in recent years. As colonialism was not just a “historical policy concerning the domination of other territories and their peoples [but also a system that] included racial and racist ideologies to ‘legitimize’ … domination, the suppression of aspects of identity such as language and traditions, and the propaganda of a Western system of knowledge” (11), it is no surprise that the legacies of colonialism are still very present in contemporary museums. The key question that Ariese and Wróblewska's guide focuses on is thus how this “multi-tentacled entity that continues to influence and affect many aspects of the world today” is dealt with—not only in what is referred to as “colonial museums” founded at the height of European colonialism in the late nineteenth century, but in all kinds of museums (11). As the authors emphasize in the introduction to their six-chapter collection of global examples of attempts to decolonize museums, colonialism is a “societal problem, not merely a problem for museums” (12). As a result, they argue, the need to decolonize is not restricted to museums focusing on, or themselves having, a colonial history, but something that is “relevant to all museums, even brand-new institutions” (12).

AB - How is decoloniality practiced in museums around the world? In this review of Csilla E. Ariese and Magdalena Wróblewska's Practicing Decoloniality in Museums: A Guide with Global Examples from 2021, I present the key arguments and layout of the book and show how the challenges of museum decolonization presented by the authors are also evident in the South African museums and art galleries where I have conducted fieldwork in recent years. As colonialism was not just a “historical policy concerning the domination of other territories and their peoples [but also a system that] included racial and racist ideologies to ‘legitimize’ … domination, the suppression of aspects of identity such as language and traditions, and the propaganda of a Western system of knowledge” (11), it is no surprise that the legacies of colonialism are still very present in contemporary museums. The key question that Ariese and Wróblewska's guide focuses on is thus how this “multi-tentacled entity that continues to influence and affect many aspects of the world today” is dealt with—not only in what is referred to as “colonial museums” founded at the height of European colonialism in the late nineteenth century, but in all kinds of museums (11). As the authors emphasize in the introduction to their six-chapter collection of global examples of attempts to decolonize museums, colonialism is a “societal problem, not merely a problem for museums” (12). As a result, they argue, the need to decolonize is not restricted to museums focusing on, or themselves having, a colonial history, but something that is “relevant to all museums, even brand-new institutions” (12).

M3 - Literature review

VL - 10

SP - 230

EP - 234

JO - Museum Worlds

JF - Museum Worlds

SN - 2049-6729

ER -