Settler museums are still settler colonial: Sheila Watson, ‘Settler societies, guilt and Indigenous inhabitants of the nation’, in Sheila Watson, National Museums and the Origins of Nations, Routledge 2020 | settler colonial studies blog

Settler museums are still settler colonial: Sheila Watson, ‘Settler societies, guilt and Indigenous inhabitants of the nation’, in Sheila Watson, National Museums and the Origins of Nations, Routledge 2020

05Jan21

Abstract: Museum methods have improved considerably in some countries, where there is more sensitivity towards the feelings of Indigenous peoples, along with genuine attempts to co-curate exhibitions. There has been a gradual recognition that the founding of the nation is the story of conquest, forced assimilation and humiliation. While this is often addressed with sympathy for the Indigenous, national museums struggle to deal with traditional notions of civilisation and progress in the context of Indigenous cultures and histories. The transition from anthropology museums, where many of these peoples were first consigned, into history museums, has proved problematic. Indeed, this chapter suggests that attempts at cultural relativity, adopted from anthropology (Kerr 2019), may be misinterpreted when placed within frameworks created by national histories. It argues that theories of social evolution, when linked to certain concepts of civilisation, widespread in popular narratives of history, inadvertently offer representations of Aboriginal societies as somehow backward, or less evolved, despite the best endeavours of museum curators to present all cultures as equal.

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