Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on two projects recently carried out by the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, together with partners from Suriname and Brazil. These projects are examples of post-colonial museological praxis in which curatorial authority is shared with stakeholder communities.

Paper long abstract:

The National Museum of Ethnology at Leiden, The Netherlands, has been rethinking its policies on research, acquisition and presentation so as to incorporate post-colonial museological praxis as the core of its daily practicies. Since 2007 a number of pilot projects have been launched aiming at different aspects of museological work. In this paper we will focus on two projects carried out with our partners in Suriname and Brazil. Both of them revolve around sharing our collections with stakeholder communities and creating opportunities for collaborative and co-creative knowledge production. This paper will describe these two projects, analyze the impact and meanings of initiatives such as community consultations, and dicuss possibilities for future developments.