HERE: Heritage Reflections 2025

Both small and large heritage institutions have a responsibility to conduct thorough provenance research into their own collections. But how do you best get started, what research methods are available, and what guidelines can you consult? The Colonial Collections Consortium supports collection-managing institutions in provenance research by sharing knowledge, acting as a source of information, and offering stakeholders a network. In this session with the Colonial Collections Consortium, you will be guided and gain insight into the latest developments surrounding the Colonial Collections Data Hub. In addition, this session will explore how you can start asking critical questions within the context of your heritage institution, taking into account both smaller and larger heritage organisations and the diversity of collections.

Speakers: Cindy Zalm – Head of Realisation at the Wereldmuseum (moderator), Camiel de Kom – Digital Heritage Coach at the Colonial Collections Consortium & Leandro Matthews Cascon – Research fellow at NIAS.

When dealing with and researching collections of colonial origin, many institutions, governments and communities strive for restitution as a result. But what do you do with collections and objects if restitution is not yet possible or if you still have steps to take in the process? Are there other ways to redress injustice and work towards healing? In this break-out session, we explore alternative forms of restitution that go beyond the physical act alone. We explore how artistic practices and digital applications contribute to the decolonisation of our collections and institutions.

Speakers: Raul Balai – visual artist & curator (moderator), Amal Alhaag – Sustaining the Otherwise, Sebastian Koudijzer – visual artist & curator

How should you deal with such collections, and what responsibilities do you have as a heritage professional? Many of our heritage institutions hold objects whose source communities are unknown, even though their colonial origins are clear. More and more institutions are conducting provenance research into (parts of) their collections, but in some cases, identifying the source community proves difficult. For scientific museums with anatomical collections, this is often the reality. What should be done in such cases, and what responsibilities lie with museums or heritage institutions? What if the community of origin does not wish to receive certain objects or ancestral remains? And how should (scientific) museums approach these types of collections in the future?

Speakers: Marieke van Bommel – General Director, Wereldmuseum, Paul Voogt – Curator, Missiemuseum Steyl, Endy Ezeluomba – Curator, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (USA)

Increasingly, the question is being asked whether museums should return collections to their countries of origin. Politicians, activists and communities from former European colonies advocate returning objects to their countries of origin. Museums themselves are also asking critical questions: how did these objects end up in their collections? And who do they actually belong to? Paul Wolff Mitchell, researcher at Pressing Matter, will take you through the exhibition Unfinished Pasts.

Speaker: Paul Wolff Mitchell – Researcher, Pressing Matter

Together with members of various communities, Manuwi C. Tokai created an altar to serve as a place of remembrance for the ancestors held in the museum’s collection. The immediate catalyst for this was a baby, believed to be of Surinamese Indigenous descent, currently kept in museum storage.

Manuwi C. Tokai initiated a request for the baby to be returned to the community. The Wereldmuseum supports this request and is working with the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science to facilitate the repatriation.

Speaker: Manuwi C. Tokai – Artist and Initiator of the Memorial Altar