How can we trace and reconstruct the provenance of objects, collections and ancestral remains that were amassed in the past, and are now placed in museums as mundane and lifeless objects frozen in a timeless past without adequate information and context? The renewed interest in provenance research can be understood as part of the broader agenda to decolonise these museums.
The museum is an institution embedded in European modernity. It was invented when a perception of ‘the Other’, or colonised populations, was being disseminated. The International Council of Museums ICOM has had a longstanding involvement in this process.
Joint research on the 1868 Maqdala expedition led us to question assumptions about the legacy of empire in museums and to scrutinise unexpected connections in the history of museum collections.
Held in 1972, the Santiago de Chile Round Table was a fundamental milestone in the historiography of museums and museology from the Global South, and a pivotal event for practices and reflections related to the ‘social role’ of museums.
