This panel discussion aims to bring some nuance to discussions about ‘decolonising the museum’ through bringing to light some of the less visible barriers facing heritage practitioners of colour in the ‘decolonial turn’. It is targeted at museum and heritage practitioners and scholars who are interested in or engaging in decolonisation practices—especially those who would like to take their advocacy to the next level. We would also like the event to serve as a way to foster solidarity between emerging and current BIPoC museum and heritage practitioners.
Panelists
Adrian Marie Blount (aka GodXXX Noirphiles)
Adrian is a California born- non binary- loving single parent - multidisciplinary/ Time-based media artist residing in Berlin, Germany since 2016. Their solo works have been featured at Emerging Change festival at Ufer Studios, Underworld: Mycelium at Ballhaus Berlin, Münchner Kammerspiele, English Theatre Berlin, Oyoun and more. They also have guest mentored and lectured at Universitat der Kunst. Additionally, they have been featured in productions at Volksbühne, Maxim Gorki Theater, Ballhaus Naunynstrasse and beyond. Recently, Blount’s premier multi disciplinary sculptural installation was featured at the Germanisches National Museum.
Sione Napi Francis
Sione is a Tongan Australian museum professional and artist with over thirty years' experience working in cultural institutions and galleries. He is passionate about empowering communities and changing dialogues around the de-colonial project from within and without collecting institutions. Currently Sione is an Exhibition Collection Manager at Museums Victoria and Secretary of AMAGA Victoria’s state committee.
Sumaya Kassim
Sumaya is a writer, curator, and editor. Her essays include ‘Museums are Temples of Whiteness’ (Routledge’s Companion to Decolonizing Art History, 2023) and the widely cited ‘The museum will not be decolonised’ (Media Diversified, 2017). She has spoken internationally on heritage, cultural memory, and art history. She is prose editor for Middleground Magazine. Her fiction has appeared in Dardishi Zine, The Good Journal and The Happy Hypocrite. Her work in fiction and museums are deeply connected.
Prarthana Narendra Hosadurga
Prarthana is a heritage professional and educator from India. Her previous works have addressed difficult and contested heritage, fostering a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding heritage interpretation and its public perception today. She is currently completing her research on the contemporary perception of National Socialist propaganda heritage exhibited in a Berlin museum and on visitor perceptions of temporary artistic interventions in combating permanent colonial monuments. Her array of works can be found at https://yetionthemove.wordpress.com.
Nathan “mudyi” Sentance
Nathan is a cis Wiradjuri librarian and museum educator who grew up on Darkinjung Country. Nathan currently works at the Powerhouse Museum as Head of Collections, First Nations and writes about history, critical librarianship and critical museology from a First Nations perspective. His writing has been previously published in the Guardian, British Art Studies, Cordite Poetry, and Sydney Review of Books and on his own blog The Archival Decolonist.
Moderator
Kavita Peterson
Kavita is a translator and emerging decolonial consultant with a special interest in decolonial and queering approaches to museum interpretation and heritage. They are also highly interested in colonial mythmaking and fantasy, and how these can be productively incorporated into our national histories in service of decolonising Western minds. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, they have until recently been residing in Berlin conducting research on the representation and interpretation of German colonialism in German national history museums. They are currently participating in a pilot paid internship across AMaGA Victoria while setting up their decolonial consultancy business at www.decolonialheritage.com.
Safety Measures
This event aims to be a ‘safer space’ for panelists and those in attendance. To this end, we will be putting a number of measures in place. This will include the following:
This event will not be recorded. Instead, a one-page executive summary of the event will be sent out to attendees after the session to help participants remember the main points shared.
We request that what is shared in the panel by our panelists is not to be shared outside of the event with any identifying information.
The event will be held in two sessions: the first session will be for BIPoC attendees only, and the second session will be for all attendees. This will allow panelists to share their experiences according to their own levels of comfort when speaking to other BIPoC people and a general audience
The event for a general audience will be in the form of a 'listening session'. The aim of this session is to listen and learn from the lived experiences of our panelists. What this means is that audience questions will not be taken and chat will be disabled in Zoom during the event.
Thank you for your understanding.
TICKETS
AMaGA members | $25.00
Non-members | $35.00
Students | $15.00
BIPOC attendees | Free