SECOND SESSION: WRITING CULTURAL WRONGS DECOLONISATION AND RESTITUTION IN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

SECOND SESSION: WRITING CULTURAL WRONGS. DECOLONISATION AND RESTITUTION IN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS WORKSHOP
Agenda:
Encountering the Danish colonial archives by Dr Daniela Agostinho

5 min Break

Decolonising the LSHTM Archives by Victoria Cranna

5 min Break

‘A museum will not be our mausoleum’: the role of participatory video and self-representation in decolonising museums by Grace Hutchison

5 min Break

Roundtable



Date/Time:
10th November 2021

From: 5 pm (UK) – 6 pm (EU) – 12 pm (New York, USA) – 9 am (Los Angeles, USA)

To: 7:30 pm (UK) – 8:30 pm (EU) – 2:30 pm (NY) – 11:30 am (LA)



Abstract:
Dr Daniela Agostinho, Assistant Professor at Aarhus University, Department of Digital Design & Information Studies

Encountering the Danish colonial archives

The talk draws on the research and curatorial project Archival Encounters, which was spurred on by the digitization of the archives documenting Danish colonial rule in the former Danish West Indies, today the United States Virgin Islands. Ever since Denmark sold these islands to the United States in 1917, a substantial part of their archived history has been stored in Denmark, far removed from its source communities. A variety of archival collections became digitally accessible in 2017, at a moment of centennial commemoration that brought to light painful histories and enduring colonial erasures. The talk will reflect on the role of artistic research and curatorial work in critically revisiting these archival records and in problematising broader discussions around colonial heritage, digitisation, and decolonisation.



Victoria Cranna, Archivist & Records Manager at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Decolonising the LSHTM Archives

In response to the Black Lives Matter movement and LSHTM’s Decolonising Global Health work, the LSHTM Archives Service has begun to re-examine the way we work, the stories we tell, and the role we can play in promoting different versions of history. Archives can provide information, insight, and inspiration; they can also reflect and reproduce racism, inequality, and imbalances of power. This presentation will discuss our approach to decolonising the archives and the role and value of the archives for critical engagement with LSHTM’s colonial past and present.



Grace Hutchison, Program Development Officer at InsightShare

‘A museum will not be our mausoleum’: the role of participatory video and self-representation in decolonising museums

We consider museums as sites of representation, memory, and identity; now we are questioning whose. This talk unpacks how ethnographic museums perpetuate colonial narratives, which continue to oppress Indigenous Peoples, and manifest colonial power relations through their practices and exhibitions. Decolonising these institutions requires us to expose these colonial subjectivities, deconstruct their paradigms, and re-present histories, Peoples, and objects from the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples. Central, then, to this process is the self-representation of Indigenous Peoples.

Using the Living Cultures project as a case study, I will explore how participatory video is being harnessed by Indigenous Peoples to re-present their living cultures, facilitate community engagement with British museums, and moreover provide a means of knowledge production that destabilises the knowledge hierarchies established through colonial mechanisms of epistemicide and sustained through our cultural and educational institutions.