The proceedings compile 21 scholarly papers (some of them very interesting) that delve into:
- Redefining museum practices to reflect anti-colonial principles.
- Practical approaches to restitution and its integration with source communities.
- Innovations in digital tools and platforms for restitution efforts.
- Insights into systemic changes required to achieve meaningful decolonisation.
In English and in Chinese.
On Decolonisation
- Decolonising involves creatively reimagining the way museums work, who they work with and what they value. It covers all areas of practice and creates a framework to better support people and institutions. Decolonising is a collective activity, which can be messy, thoughtful, imaginative, and emotional.
- It is driven by the desire for justice and equity in that it aims to rebalance power and representation away from the coloniser narrative of history and society. This work is intersectional, as it challenges structural inequalities across the board to redress forms of historic and ongoing harm.
E.g. Yunxia Wang (Renmin University of China) on soft-law measures:
- The existing international conventions dealing with disputes over the return/restitution of cultural objects cannot be the legal basis due to their lack of retroactive effect.
- International soft laws such as the Washington Principles and the ICOM Recommendations have played a great role in dealing with disputes over the restitution of Jewish looted arts during World War II, and have accumulated experience for resolutions of similar problems left over by history.
- The new approaches for the return of colonial cultural objects in France and Germany have greatly contributed to the international community’s ref lection on the necessity and feasibility of the return of cultural objects from colonial contexts.
- However, it is not enough to rely on policies and actions taken by governments or museums of countries concerned.
- A declaration or recommendation should be issued by important international organizations such as ICOM in due course to establish a unified framework for the return of colonial cultural objects, so as to provide a legal basis for proper resolution on the issue among countries concerned.
