Mirjam Shatanawi will trace the historical roots of Western scholarship’s exclusion of Indonesia from the broader field of Islamic art, the presentation discusses the ways in which colonial legacies continue to inform contemporary understandings of Islam—as a religion, a cultural practice, and an artistic tradition.
She will highlight the structural patterns inherited from colonialism that have contributed to persistent silences and gaps in the representation of Indonesian Islamic heritage. These patterns not only reflect historical biases but also reveal the complex and often contested meanings attributed to Islam in both academic and public discourses.
The discussion further explores the implications of these colonial frameworks for current practices of collection management, exhibition, and scholarly interpretation.
Organized by Pan-Sumatra Network for Heritage Conservation (Pansumnet) and Sumatra Heritage Trust (BWS).
- Mirjam Shatanawi is Senior Lecturer and UNESCO Chairholder Museum Collections, Repatriation and Interculturality of Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam
- Moderator is Muhammad Rasyidin, Historian of Medicine and Plantation Society, Lecturer at Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU)
