Heritage Deferred? (2018)

The symposium Heritage Deferred? with case studies from China, Latin America, Oceania, and Namibia expanded the perspectives and offered a deeper explorations of how museums and collections may deal with these diverse emerging perspectives.

The issue of unjustly appropriated objects and human remains within European museums and collections – as well as the demand for their return – is at the forefront of debates on the handling of colonial heritage. However, when these questions are approached from the perspective of the objects’ ‘countries of origin’, a different set of questions and concerns often emerge. These reflect the friction between a global economy and regional specificities that can be traced back to the colonial past. The symposium (22 – 23 November 2018) invited international museum experts to present their practices and approaches at the Dahlem Museums in Berlin. By fostering a discussion into the relationship between the history of museum collections and power relations, the symposium critically unpacked possibilities for undertaking joint action in addressing restitution and provenance.