Decolonization within the Museum

Abstract

There are two realities which pose the greatest impediments to museum decolonization. These are: the very existence of the museum itself being a Western construct, and, the nature of the collections within. Since the last decades of the 20th century, museums with assemblages of anthropological materials have become highly contested spaces. There is a growing movement emanating from the descendants of the peoples from whom these materials originated for the decolonization of such museums. To this end, these museums are having to develop a way to address the dilemma in which they find themselves in order to map a route forward and effect a realignment with those for whom this means so much.