NOT THE SAME AS DECOLONIZATION

Tuck, Eve and Yang, Wayne K. “Decolonization is not a metaphor.” In Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, vol. 1, no. 1 (2012).

True decolonization is not about using the right words. True decolonization means repatriation of land. Museums are inherently colonial institutions, built on Indigenous land. For these reasons, museums will not be decolonized.

Kassim, Sumaya. “The museum will not be decolonised.” Media Diversified (2017).

Kassim discusses her experience in a project designed to “confront history in new and challenging ways” at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in Britain. Although Britain’s colonial past and present are different from those of the United States and Canada, her reflection is incisive and useful for thinking through the appropriation of decolonial language and the status of a contemporary museum within that landscape.