Paper short abstract:

Decolonising the Curatorial Process is a forty-minute documentary which explores decolonial strategies in an academic and curatorial context. It features academics, activists and museums that are deploying critical, self-reflective forms of curatorial practice.

Paper long abstract:

Decolonising the Curatorial Process

Dr Orson Nava

https://vimeo.com/464558806

Decolonising the Curatorial Process is a forty-minute documentary which explores decolonial strategies in an academic and curatorial context. The film features academics, activists and practitioners, and contains case-studies of institutions that are deploying critical, self-reflective forms of curatorial practice. The Museum of London Docklands exhibition on slavery and the sugar industry is examined as an example of how an institution can decolonise the curatorial process, utilise the work of artists in a museum context, and critically examine East London's imperial history. The other case study is the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford who are working with InsightShare participatory video company and a group of Maasai activists from Kenya and Tanzania on a project centered on the museum's collection of sacred Maasai artefacts.

The intention of the project is to build a critical awareness of the central debates in this area among university and museum staff, as well as students of the arts and the social sciences. It was conceived as an online resource that can be accessed by universities and museums, particularly for use in teaching modules focusing on the history of 'race', colonialism, slavery and migration. It is also intended to be screened as part of panel discussions at Museums and community organisations.

I propose to show some clips from the film and expand on the points it raises about radical curatorial practices, indigenous activism and the problematics of cultural ownership in the context of museums and the academy.