This week, we share some highlights from Decolonising the Curatorial Process, a 40min documentary by Dr Orson Nava that explores decolonial strategies in academic and museum contexts.
Dr Orson Nava is a filmmaker, lecturer and visiting research fellow at the Centre for Research on Migration Refugees and Belonging at the University of East London.
“In this film my intention is to examine how museums have traditionally treated colonised subjects and artefacts, and ask what strategies can be used to contest the forms of historical erasure, objectification and appropriation that have often been part of the curatorial process.” - Dr Orson Nava (quote from film)
In the first case study in Cape Town, student activists including Lunga Mantasha (pictured) eloquently reject the concept of inclusivity and the colonial structure of academic learning in an open debate with university staff.
At the Museum of London Docklands, Dr Melissa Bennett offers insights into the decolonial strategies implemented in the ‘London, Sugar and Slavery’ galleries, including showcasing stories of resistance, precolonial artefacts and commissioning creative responses to the content.
We also meet Maasai activist Scholastica Ene Kukutia, who discusses her conflicted emotions during a collaboration with Pitt Rivers Museum curators on the reinterpretation of colonially sourced Maasai collections.
This exchange is part of InsightShare’s Decolonising Cultural Spaces project, a Living Culture initiative which supports Indigenous Peoples to protect their territories, languages and cultures.