1,720,998 research outputs found
Ethnographic collections in Northern Ireland and the Solomon Islands tomako (canoe) at the Ulster Museum, 1898–2023
No full textThe World Cultures collection at National Museums Northern Ireland is an essential source for the study of Irish collecting in the wider British Empire. The 2022 redisplay of the collection in the Ulster Museum's exhibition, Inclusive Global Histories, is part of a staged engagement with local and source communities. Given the critical importance of the global museum decolonisation work of which the exhibition is an example, a fresh consideration of this ethnographic collection's history is timely. This article reviews the collection within the context of the three museums that have housed it, and investigates how curators within the institution understood, represented and displayed the collection. It does so through a case study of a war canoe (tomako), that was taken from the Solomon Islands, by John Casement, a captain in the Royal Navy, and is the largest and among the most significant items within the collection. The canoe's centrality to the gallery — built around it in 1925 — that now contains Inclusive Global Histories reveals complex social networks between nineteenth- and twentieth-century collectors, curators and photographers, and aids understanding of how global human cultures have been regarded in Northern Ireland's civic life.<br/
The Royal African Company in The National Archives (UK)
No full textIn 2023-4, as a researcher and eighteenth century specialist at The NationalArchives, I worked on the papers of the Royal African Company and itssuccessors. Established in 1663 by royal charter, the Company transported moreenslaved African people to the Americas than any other institution in the history ofthe trade. The research focused on the Detached Papers - a previously uncatalogued set of volumes in TNA’s T 70 series
Colonialism, empire, and inclusive global histories at the Ulster Museum
No full textOn 31 March 2022, National Museums NI launched Inclusive Global Histories at the Ulster Museum. Developed with the support of Michelle McIntyre-Brewer as Cultural Liaison, and through collaboration with local citizens and organisations, the exhibition indicates institutional commitment to decolonisation and to confronting contemporary racism. Focusing on the mid-late twentieth century, this article reviews the history of the ‘World Cultures’ collection that provides the basis for the exhibition
'Colonial objects'? Museum decolonisation, binaries and autoethnography in Northern Ireland
No full textThis chapter begins with an autoethnographic exploration of the Northern Irish author’s experience of inheriting family possessions from Hong Kong, Ireland and Britain. It considers whether the term ‘colonial object’ can be applied to these items and suggests that, in addition to representing a geopolitically colonised individual, group, or place, as do many of those in museums, such an item might also be one that has been used to perpetuate ideas about the ‘other’.<br/
Colonialism, empire, and inclusive global histories at the Ulster Museum
No full textOn 31 March 2022, National Museums NI launched Inclusive Global Histories at the Ulster Museum. Developed with the support of Michelle McIntyre-Brewer as Cultural Liaison, and through collaboration with local citizens and organisations, the exhibition indicates institutional commitment to decolonisation and to confronting contemporary racism. Focusing on the mid-late twentieth century, this article reviews the history of the ‘World Cultures’ collection that provides the basis for the exhibition
Decolonisation in Northern Irish museums: how does it feel?
No full textNorthern Irish museums are looking closely at the recently published Museums Association’s Supporting Decolonisation in Museums guidance. As the guidance points out, decolonising museums requires a courageous commitment to standing up for justice; and a preparedness to identify and communicate uncomfortable truths.Making colonial legacies explicit demands meaningful partnerships, meeting people where they are to listen to their memories of the colonial past and their perspectives on its material representation in museums.While the topics of imperialism and colonialism have not been totally avoided in Northern Irish museums, until recently they have only been explicitly tackled in a handful of cases. This has included, for example, mentions in publications and exhibitions at the Ulster Museum; and in regimental museums’ displays on actions in imperial and global wars.This is, in part, because the subject of Ireland’s role in the British Empire (and vice-versa) has been at the centre of political polarisation, and because its public discussion has the potential to incite further division.As recent announcements have shown, museums are approaching decolonisation through their experience of dealing with the legacies of conflict on the island of Ireland, and view decolonisation as a means of building community pride, and of supporting reconciliation on both a local and global basis.Museums can enable the discovery and sharing of emotions and the launch of the decolonisation guidance at the MA conference included a striking discussion of the emotional labour required in examining colonial legacies. In this discussion emotions were centred as a form of knowledge; a way of understanding the past that produces distinctly different outcomes for the people museums work with than the telling of purely historical narratives does.When considering colonial histories in Ireland, ‘feeling knowledge’ has a role. To understand how people in this place relate to the themes of colonialism and imperialism, and what they believe museum decolonisation needs to entail, we need first to comprehend their experiences of colonialism outside of Ireland; and listen to memories of and perspectives on Ireland’s past within the British Empire.As my current ESRC-funded research on Museums, Empire and Northern Irish Identity is showing, asking people how they feel about the topics of colonialism and the British Empire; and about objects acquired through processes of colonial collecting, offers the potential to de-marginalise narratives that fall outside traditional ‘community’ boundaries; and has the potential to make space for voices that haven’t yet been heard
The Royal African Company in The National Archives (UK)
No full textIn 2023-4, as a researcher and eighteenth century specialist at The NationalArchives, I worked on the papers of the Royal African Company and itssuccessors. Established in 1663 by royal charter, the Company transported moreenslaved African people to the Americas than any other institution in the history ofthe trade. The research focused on the Detached Papers - a previously uncatalogued set of volumes in TNA’s T 70 series
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