Decolonization

Museopunks Episode 38: Decolonization and its Discontents

By Suse Anderson and Ed Rodley

As decolonization moves more firmly onto the agenda in museums, so too does its critique. In this episode, we speak with Sumaya Kassim, author of the essay ‘The Museum Will Not Be Decolonised’, and Nathan “Mudyi” Sentance to …
Ceding Authority and Seeding Trust

By Ben Garcia, Kelly Hyberger, Brandie Macdonald, and Jaclyn Roessel

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Through a decolonizing collections practice, the San Diego Museum of Man is creating a more ethical standard for the Indigenous …
Discomfort in Learning: Museum audiences react to decolonizing practices.

By Starr Kelly, Angela Raup, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Traditional museum models of interpretation have historically failed Indigenous people by creating static spaces where the …
Hiding In Plain Sight: An exhibition showcasing America’s obsession with Native American iconography aims to start a new conversation.

By Paul Chaat Smith

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. By most standards, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, DC, is a wildly successful …
Taking Native Lands and Lives

By Christine Lashaw

Museums have power—the power to tell stories, shape narratives, and influence the lens we bring to bear on the past. That power can be harnessed for healing, as museums contribute to a reparative reexamination of history and the legacy of …
TrendsWatch 2019: Confronting the Past: The long, hard work of decolonization

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is one of the five trends from the 2019 TrendsWatch. Click here to read more about the full report. “Colonialism and imperialism have not settled their debt to us once they have withdrawn their flag and their police force from our …
Finding Resilience in Challenging Times

By Olga Viso

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2019 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of membership with the Alliance. Click here to learn more about membership! Museums must embrace new values if they are to survive into the next …
Listen to the Interns: The Importance of the “Budding Scholar” for Museum Decolonization

By Ashleigh Smith

As a junior in college, I think I might have found my calling—for now anyway. For the past two and a half years I have been studying Art History, Museum Studies, and African American History at Duke University. I’ve committed myself to the …
Museopunks Episode 32: Changing the Canon

By Suse Anderson

Museum collections in established institutions come with long histories. So how do you change a museum’s canon? In this episode, we speak with Christopher Bedford, Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director of The Baltimore Museum of Art, about the …
Decolonisation: we aren’t going to save you

By Puawai Cairns

In today’s guest post, Head of Mātauranga Māori (Head of the taonga Māori collection) at Te Papa, Puawai Cairns (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Pūkenga) reflects on what decolonisation means to the museum sector and what it …