Unsettling the museum: Thinking through indigenous entanglements

Pressured claims for reparation and the redistribution of authority in decision-making processes, some museums have recognised their entanglements with Indigenous cultures and the erasure produced by the appropriation of collections and the imposition of classificatory systems. How are these institutions transformed by Indigenous agency and curatorship? What are the potential uses assigned to museums by Indigenous curators, creators and artists in the present?

Themes and areas of inquiry:

  • Indigenous agency and curatorship in museums
  • Latin American Indigenous entanglements in Scottish archives and collections
  • Decolonising art history through Indigenous perspectives
  • Care, repair, and reparatory practices in the curation of Atlantic worlds
  • Dialogical, cross‑cultural, and community‑based approaches to museum practice
  • Ethical challenges in collaborative exhibition development
  • Artistic and curatorial strategies that unsettle Western canons

 

These are some of the grounding questions constituting the basis of the debates we wish to undertake in the symposium Unsettling the Museum: Thinking through Indigenous Entanglements, at the University of St Andrews in July 8-10, 2026.

By critically examining museum practice, methods and colonial legacies, our symposium is interested in unsettling established frameworks and perspectives based on the Western canon informing museum work.

RM* thanks for the contribution to this item