ABSTRACT

Museums are complex, intersectional informal learning spaces that are situated in a distinctive positionality of power, social trust, and colonialism. For many people, they serve as community spaces that empower the imagination and connect intergenerational learning, while simultaneously functioning as prestigious institutions for research and scholarship. Yet, for Black, Indigenous and Communities of Color, museums equate to pain. Museums are everlasting monuments that replicate colonial erasure and violence through their exhibitions, educational content, and through their curatorial, stewardship, and collecting practices. In thinking about these nuanced paradigms, it is essential we critically interrogate how museums can responsibly move forward while being held accountable for past and current colonial harm without being performative. My goal is to reflect on this complex dichotomy through physical and digital initiatives to underscore how museum’s anti-colonial and decolonial practices can decenter Euro-American historiography in an educational context.

摘要

博物馆是复杂的、交叉的非正式学习空间，位于权力、社会信任和殖民主义的独特定位中。对许多人来说，它们是激发想象力和连接代际学习的社区空间，同时也是享有盛誉的研究和学术机构。然而，对于黑人、土著和有色人种社区来说，博物馆等同于痛苦。博物馆是永恒的纪念碑，通过展览、教育内容以及策展、管理和收藏实践复制殖民时代的抹杀和暴力。在思考这些微妙的范式时，我们必须批判性地询问博物馆如何能够负责任地向前发展，同时对过去和现在的殖民伤害负责，而不是表演性的。