Contribution short abstract:

The broad categorization of American collections under an alleged “colonial context,” as presented on Germany’s Portal for Collections from Colonial Contexts" by the German Digital Library, is critically examined. Proposals for differentiations are outlined in consultation with local stakeholders.

Contribution long abstract:

In the lead-up to the controversial opening of the Humboldt Forum Berlin, the scrutiny of collections in Germany originating from its former colonies in Africa and the South Pacific has become a focal point of public discourse. Funding has been allocated, restitutions facilitated, new institutional structures established. The German Digital Library launched “Germany’s Portal for Collections from Colonial Contexts,” which indiscriminately includes online collections from the Americas housed in German museums. However, the platform is plagued by incomplete and inaccurate data—both substantively and technically—and reflects Eurocentric structures and categories. However, the portal claims:

“The portal is intended primarily for people and organisations from the states and communities from which the collection items originated, for representatives of diaspora communities and for civil society actors.”

Consultations with representatives of these communities reveal that the platform is largely unusable for their purposes. This presentation raises critical questions:

• Who defines and determines which collections from the Americas fall under a “colonial context”?

• Are the intended communities aware of and involved in these efforts?

• Why are findings from provenance research neither integrated nor updated?

• Most importantly, what are the expectations of Indigenous societies for such platforms?

Using specific examples, this talk critically examines the sweeping inclusion of American collections under the “colonial context” framework, modeled after African collections. It outlines the need for nuanced differentiation. Finally, it challenges the role and legitimacy of Latin American state authorities in restitution claims, considering their treatment of Indigenous communities from which these collections originated.