Decolonisation guidance launched for museums in Northern Ireland

New guidance has been launched to support museums in Northern Ireland to move forward with work on decolonisation.

The guidance is based on the lessons learned from Global Voices, Local Choices, a groundbreaking partnership project between National Museums NI (NMNI), the African and Caribbean Support Organisation of NI and the Northern Ireland Museums Council.

It was launched last week at the Museums Association's Members Together: Northern Ireland event at Ulster Museum in Belfast.

The creative engagement project, which was funded by the MA's Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund and National Museums NI, aimed to bring diverse cultures and perspectives into Northern Ireland’s local and national museums, and to empower people to make choices relating to world cultures collections and how they are interpreted.

The project saw groups with experiences of global cultures invited to take part in workshops at local museums, where they engaged with a number of objects selected from the world cultures collection at National Museums NI.

The groups discussed the historical cultural significance of the items and how they came to be owned by the museum, and developed their own creative responses.

National Museums NI will apply the lessons of the project to the management and presentation of its world culture collections.

The new guidance focuses on the three pillars of the project: organisations, communities and collections, and explores the impact and lessons learned in these areas.

The document urges organisations to be “prepared to face up to uncomfortable truths and challenging histories”, and to take a “respectful, honest and transparent” approach.

It also advises organisations to “be positive and do not be afraid to work in this field”, stating that “decolonisation can be approached in a positive way through creativity and inclusiveness”.

The guidance advises organisations not to make assumptions about how participants will engage with the project, and to “be committed to following through on the needs and ideas of your communities and partners”.

The document states: “We hope this guidance document will prove useful to those who seek to deliver decolonisation work in their organisation and we are committed to disseminate learning and share experiences to all interested.

"As a network of museums and organisations we hope to use our learning to advocate to those in power the benefits of decolonisation, inclusion and diversity work and be part of transformative change in Northern Ireland.”

To build on the project’s legacy, the project partners say they are considering longer programmes, as well as how to integrate the findings into wider aspects of museum work.

The guidance is hosted on the websites of the three project partners.