ICOM NEWS no.
3 > 2005
Ethics and Heritage
Decolonising Museology
H u g u e s d e V a r i n e , Local and Community Development Consultant, Director of ICOM from 1965 to 1974
L arge museums all over the world adhere to museological models de-
veloped in Europe during the 19th century and gradually modified by a
group of European and American museum directors and curators over the
20th century to fit in with the principles and standards of research, culture and
taste of the countries concerned. These countries, colonial or dominant
powers, passed on their museological theories and museographical practices
as a matter of course to their political, economic and cultural dependants,
which for this purpose can be viewed as colonies, whatever their precise
administrative status. In the post-war period, UNESCO and ICOM served as
(respectively political and professional) vehicles for these concepts, which
were thought of as unwritten rules. International meetings were held to help
the countries which were poorest in terms of museums (and poorest, full
stop) absorb and implement these rules.
Meanwhile, the great art, archaeology
and natural science museums, together
with collectors and dealers, pursued
their acquisitions policies of grabbing
everything they could lay hands on,
thereby depleting the heritage of the rest
of the world.
> In the 1960’s and 1970’s, several
overlapping movements, many explicitly
political, began to destabilise this sys-
tem in the museums sector. Civil rights
movements, movements for the libera-
tion of women and various minorities,
the search for national and local identi-
ties, the emergence of nationalist move-
ments in newly independent former
colonies, and the influence of revolu-
tionary thinkers and activists gradually Sophie Ristelhueber
reached the fringes of the museum Image excerpt from Fait, 1992
© sophie ristelhueber adagp
world. Strong personalities such as
John Kinard (USA), Mario Vazquez
(Mexico), Pablo Toucet (Niger), Stanislas Adotevi (Benin), Amalendu Bose
(India) and inspirational figures from other fields such as Paulo Freire (Brazil)
or Jorge H. Hardoy (Argentina) and many others, helped germinate new
concepts whose aim was to decolonise the museum and turn it into a de-
velopment tool for grassroots communities, rather than a prestigious institu-
tion used to bolster the elite. In the watershed years of 1971 and 1972, these new
ideas made their first appearance on the international scene. The UNESCO-ICOM
seminar in Santiago in 1972 remains the chief point of reference.
> These ideas and the experiments which grew out of them did not suc-
ceed in influencing museology throughout the world, but they did begin to
permeate the practices of professionals working in the field in various coun-
tries and eventually came to be known collectively as “new museology” — a
nebulous phrase covering widely differing theories and projects, which often
had very little to do with institutional museums as defined by ICOM. As a
result of misunderstandings, the term "ecomuseum" came to be used both for
truly innovative schemes and for thoroughly conventional projects wishing to
attract attention or to pay lip-service to the notion. But that hardly matters:
committed new museologists easily recognise fellow-activists and have pur-
sued their quest for a “museology of liberation” (in Odalice Priosti’s phrase)
< Focus 3
that can help communities find within themselves and from outside the
strength and the means to live and act as the agents of their own futures.
> New museology, whether it uses the term ecomuseum or not, is cur-
rently thriving in all four corners of the world. Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Canada,
China and Japan are spearheading research into and implementation of a
variety of solutions. Projects are under way in India, Korea, Poland and
Senegal. Most countries have carried out or are considering isolated experi-
ments. More and more exchanges on new museum territorialisation are
taking place between pioneers.
Globalisation and the Circulation of Cultural Property
> Since the early 1960’s, UNESCO and subsequently ICOM have been
campaigning against illicit trade in cul-
tural and natural heritage and encouraging
major museums in rich countries to
adopt more ethical acquisition policies
and ethical heritage practices.
> Going even further back, the countries
which have lost, for various reasons
(war, theft, trafficking, ignorance, peas-
ants’ poverty and collectors’ greed),
important examples or even whole
swathes of their national heritage have
been attempting to recover them, with
especial justification in those cases
where they themselves are now in a posi-
tion to take care of the items, having
developed effective heritage policies.
> But the rich have always robbed the
poor, the victors looted the vanquished,
and the poor survived by selling whatever they could — and why not
archaeological relics?
> Can it be said then that the efforts of UNESCO, ICOM and the most
responsible elements of the museum world have been and always will be vain
and that the most priceless cultural heritage will always circulate in one di-
rection only and end up in private or “inalienable” collections — a convenient
excuse for not giving them back to their culturally legitimate owners?
But perhaps we can allow ourselves to dream.
> Perhaps it is conceivable that, with the aid of forums like UNESCO
and ICOM, the treasures of the various civilisations which have been hoarded
by a few dozen major European, North American and Japanese museums
may lawfully be returned to their country of origin, provided these countries
are capable of conserving them in optimum conditions, duly recognised by
independent experts, in terms of both safety and access for consultation.
There is a list of sites belonging to the World Heritage of mankind: surely
returned collections could be similarly placed under international responsibi-
lity, to ensure both their protection and circulation, this time in all directions?
> This then would be the beginning of the end of cultural colonialism
and imperialism.
Contact: Hugues de Varine, hdevarine@aol.com
www.interactions-online.com