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Rationale

Museums are places that teach about the past, aren’t they? But who decides, which stories are worth telling and which pieces worth exhibiting?  The time of the British Empire is over on the paper, but the UK as a Western country still holds political and/or economic power over the people from former colonies. In most cases, and this virtual exhibition is no exception, museums about the British Empire are curated by people from the global West. They are the ones who decide which stories are being told and which pieces are being shown (cf. Duthie 2011: 22). Consequentially, many museums still present a colonial perspective, but this often goes unnoticed because museums are assumed to present an objective account of history (cf. Whittington 2022: 252). The British Museum for example, by claiming to be a ‘universal museum’, “remains an imperial institution in a post-imperial world” (Duthie 2011: 23). Having the descendants of the former oppressors tell stories about colonialism, w
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Handouts

Below you will find the links to access the downloadable PDFs: Teacher's Guide -  Click here Students' Handout -  Click here
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Sample List

Key: STOLEN - LEGALLY ACQUIRED - CONTEMPORARY ITEM 1  Name: Indigenous People’s Remains   Date: Unknown  Artist: -  Original location: Unknown Current location: National Museum of Australia, Australia (Illegally collected/stolen)  Medium: -
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References

ART ARK. "The Yuendumu Doors". Accessed May 12, 2022. https://artark.com.au/pages/the-yuendumu-doors-early-aboriginal-art#:~:text=The%20doors%20were%20a%20way,dictated%20much%20of%20daily%20life Art Gallery NSW. "Dreaming in urban areas 1993". Accessed May 12, 2022. https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/393.1993/  Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. 2000. Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts . New York: Routledge, 2007. Clement, Tacey. “Gordon Hookey’s kangaroos with attitude are symbols of Indigenous resistance”, Art Guide Australia , January/February 2022. https://artguide.com.au/gordon-hookeys-kangaroos-with-attitude-are-symbols-of-indigenous-resistanc Daley, Paul. "Reuniting Indigenous 'sticks' with their stories: the museum on a mission to give back", The Guardian , March 3, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/04/reuniting-indigenous-sticks-with-their-stories-the-museum-on-a-mission-to-gi
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Etched Bark (19th c.), Dja Dja Warrun people

F or centuries, indigenous populations in the North of Australia have used carved pieces of wood as a mean of cultural and spiritual expression. This particular etched bark was made by the Dja Dja Warrun people in the early 19th century, and taken from their original owners in 1854 by the European anthropologist John Hunter Kerr, who had it displayed at the 1855 Paris International Exposition and later sold it to the British Museum. The importance of this item lies on its controversial dispossession and the activism movement surrounding it, led by the Dja Dja Wurrung’s Yung Balug clan elder Gary Murray. Murray, in representation of his clan, has opened a dialogue with the British Museum curators in order to get this piece back to its country of origin, which has for now only resulted in it being loaned to Australian museums on two different occasions. During these loaning processes, the First Nations people have tried to apply the federal Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act to
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We Call them Pirates Out Here (2004), Daniel Boyd

We Call Them Pirates Out Here was painted in 2004 by Aboriginal artist Daniel Boyd. Through this piece, Boyd mocks Emanuel Phillips Fox’s painting The Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay (1902). Fox’s painting evokes the traditional portrayal of Captain Cook as a hero against the backdrop of whitewashed colonialism. By changing the composition of this canonical representation of the landing, Boyd revises this historical episode through a postcolonial lens. The result is a parodic painting that, by mimicking Fox’s traditional style, subverts the original discourse. The concept of mimicry—put forward by Bhabha and understood as the mockery contained in “the copying of the colonizing culture, behaviour, manners and values by the colonized” (Ashcroft et al. , 125)—can be perceived in that Boyd keeps a similar visual aesthetic while altering the composition. This work is an example of counter-discourse because it challenges the hegemonic narrative surrounding the colonisation o
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Yuendumu Doors (1982), Paddy Jupurrurla Nelson, Roy Jupurrurla Curtis, Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, Paddy Japaljarri Sims, Larry Jungarrayi Spencer

  In 1982, a group of Walpiri elders from Yuendumu (Northern Territory of Australia) began a project to transmit Walpiri Dreaming Stories to the children of the local school. They did so by painting the doors of the school in colorful representations of their Dreamings; thus, creating the Yuendumu doors. The series of 30 doors can now be found in the South Australian Museum since they were acquired by the latter during the 1990s when the school underwent reformations. The Yuendumu doors are said to represent the cross-cultures between Aboriginal and white communities due to the chosen medium, the color palette, and the purpose behind the creation of the doors. Walpiri art was historically ephemeral and had earthy colors. Representations of the Dreamings were traced into the sand and erased later by the wind. The symbols and their meanings were passed down through generations within the community without the need of a tangible, permanent material, or surface to do so. This, however, was
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Murriland! #1 (2015-2017), Gordon Hookey

The oil painting Murriland! #1 (2015-2017) by Aboriginal-Australian artist Gordon Hookey is a critical visual retelling of the history of the Australian state of Queensland, home of the Murri people, from the beginning of time up until its colonization by the British Empire and the aftermath of said colonization which lasts until today. Large in scope, this oil painting on canvas is also large in scale: it spans 2,11m x 10m (cf. Folkerts 2016). Hookey painted the piece for the Amsterdam-based exhibition ‘Frontier Imaginaries’ and the documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany, and it was produced as a response to the artwork History of Zaire, 1973-1974 , by Tshibumba Kanda Matulu (cf. Clement, 2022). The colourful painting draws from Aboriginal art and stories, like the Rainbow Serpent, but also portrays specific historical characters and events such as Captain James Cook’s arrival in Australia and uses writing to critique past and present events of denying the violence of Australian c
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