Our Colonial Inheritance - Hardcover

Modest, Wayne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9401477515 ISBN 13: 9789401477512

Publisher: Lannoo Publishers, 2024

Synopsis

• How slavery and colonialism continue to shape our present
• Created in collaboration with the National Museum of World Cultures in Amsterdam
• Beautifully illustrated

Our Colonial Inheritance explores the complex ways in which slavery and colonialism continue to shape the present, and examines the many entanglements of colonial knowledge systems and infrastructures with our everyday lives. This publication comes at a time when important conversations are happening about the role that the colonial past has played in shaping our society, and how we can engage with this past in the present.

The use of the term "inheritance" in the title is a conscious choice, used to provoke what in our view is a different kind of relationship to the past. Throughout the publication, the authors interrogate what it means to inherit the (infra)structures of the colonial past, its categories, its relations and even its objects, and how we can deal with such bequests.

About this title

About the Author

Wayne Modest is Director of Content of the National Museum of World Culture and the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. He is also Professor (by special appointment) of Material Culture and Critical Heritage Studies at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. His most recent publications include the co-edited publications, Matters of Belonging: Ethnographic Museums in A Changing Europe (Sidestone Publications, 2019, together with Nick Thomas, et al), and Victorian Jamaica (Duke University press: 2018, together with Tim Barringer).

From the Back Cover

What does it mean to inherit from a colonial past? The semi-permanent exhibition 'Our Colonial Inheritance' in the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam explores the complex ways in which colonial pasts continue to shape our present, examining the many entanglements of colonial knowledge systems and infrastructures within our everyday life today.

This book is a furtherance of our ongoing exploration of this theme. Throughout the publication we move away from the question of a historical legacy, and instead focus on the collective inheritance in the present. This is a crucial step for us to be able to talk to each other about the future.

While our 'colonial inheritance' may mean something different to everyone, it is also a collective experience in the here and now. What steps can we take together to move towards a more just world? How do we collectively create a better future? And what role can a museum play in this?

These are all questions that informed the contributions in this book through essays, conversations, and object lessons. Over 30 scholars, artists and museum professionals describe what it means to inherit the (infra)structures of the colonial past, its categories, its relations, and even its objects. This publication asks us, and its readers, how we deal with such bequests.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lannoo Publishers
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9401477515
• ISBN 13: 9789401477512
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 383