HART2274 Introduction to Museum and Curatorial Studies Unit Coordinator: Dr Susanne Meurer
ELYSSA HUNT
‘Decolonising the Museum’ In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, museum institutions emerged as ‘active tools of empire’1, displaying and collecting objects deemed to be of value to European tastes.2 When established in European nations, they reinforced colonial and imperial values, positioning ethnographic study as a study of the ‘other’, or the ‘savage’, and therefore justifying European superiority and the maintenance of European colonial empires. Additionally, the establishment of museums in European settler colonies created cultural institutions that elevated European values, promoted the ‘other’ as a curiosity and an object of study, and contributed to the dispossession of land through the physical occupation of space. Museums worldwide house vast collections of objects attained during the colonial period, large portions of which were attained as spoils of war, looting, and other violent acts. Displays of ethnographic and anthropological objects in Western institutions as ‘curiosities’ curated presumptions of ‘otherness’ and ‘savagery’ in nonEuropean cultures,3 justifying colonialism and ideas of European superiority. As a result, decolonising the museum has become an urgent priority. In this essay, I will evaluate measures taken by three institutions to address decolonisation as a priority: The British Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum, and The Australian Museum, through the 2021 exhibition Unsettled. The British Museum is often interpreted as a cornerstone of British culture and identity, housing over four million objects.4 The museum was initially opened in 1759,5 housing an initial collection 90
purchased from Sir Hans Sloane in 1753, which included ‘natural and artificial varieties’, books, coins and artefacts.6 Following this initial opening, the British Museum collection was expanded with objects attained during Britain’s imperial efforts. Colonial processes were ‘inextricably intertwined’ with scientific research.7 Colonial powers embarked on scientific voyages in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with some, including the Endeavour voyage, becoming the catalyst for later colonisation. Additionally, specimens collected scientifically were often displayed as curiosities in Europe,8 curating notions of the ‘other’ while celebrating European scientific achievement, establishing ideas of colonial superiority.9 Additionally, portions of the British Museum collection were attained during periods of colonial violence and looting.10 The British Museum has become one of the most recognisable and referenced institutions within the decolonisation debate, with heavily contested objects within the collection, including the Parthenon Marbles and Benin Bronzes referenced extensively in decolonisation and restitution discussions. Amidst mounting pressure, the British Museum has engaged in multiple ways with these debates.11 Several pages on the British Museum website are dedicated to contested objects within its ‘Explore the collection’,12 and minutes from repatriation debates are available, including requests for the repatriation of human remains collected from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, which were denied due to a lack of evidence13. A particular example on the British Museum website is an Aboriginal bark and red mangrove wood shield, likely collected from coastal Northern New South Wales in the later eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries14. The museum website discusses requests for the wood shield to be returned by Aboriginal community members, acknowledging the significance of the shield in relation to Australia’s colonial past,
