Introduction
Communication has a key role to play in any museum’s decolonisation practice. A strong communications strategy can insulate you from risk and help build a stronger brand in the process.
This guidance is meant to be a starting point for building a robust communication strategy to support your work. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach because across the museum sector there is a diversity of capacity, size, and tactics.
Take what works for you, and what’s possible institutionally, and embrace it. The more we do this work together, the stronger our work will be and the easier it will get next time.
Ethics
The Museums Association (MA) Code of Ethics for Museums is a useful resource to support embedding these ideas internally and externally. Decolonisation work is an important part of meaningful public engagement and public benefit — there is a strong ethical position to make as part of your strategy.
Our guidance, Supporting Decolonisation in Museums will be a helpful resource for this work. Museums are in an important position of trust for audiences, local communities, donors, source communities, partner organisations, sponsors and funders and we must make sound ethical judgments in all areas of work in order to maintain this trust.
Self-censorship
Self-censorship is likely to play a role in determining your comms strategy. The instinct to protect the organisation from negative press or feedback is natural but pushing through those hesitations is essential. Remember, we must be brave in this work. Be ready to challenge norms and encourage taking risks within your institution.
Sometimes ethical practice may not align with traditional ‘best practice’ standards. To allow self-censorship to become the modus-operandi of a museum means undermining the role of the museums to challenge audiences with new and different perspectives.
When you’re taking on a decolonisation project, be prepared to work through some discomfort but do it knowing that this work is vital. That said, we recognise that some organisations will be limited due to governance and organisational censorship.
Image: Visitors at University of Cambridge Museums © University of Cambridge Museums