In this follow-up to our two-part special feature on the 2018 Museum Ethnographer's Group conference "Decolonizing the Museum in Practice", held in April of last year we interview Dr. Wayne Modest, director of the Research Center for Material Culture. Hosted by Deborah Thomas and interviewed by Chris Green, Dr. Modest shares with us his thoughts on decolonizing as an ongoing commitment. He emphasizes the great responsibility that curators have to the people, past and present, who are represented in museum collections. In his view, museum research and curation must always be public-facing and must commit to working together with those whose lives are most precarious in the afterlives of colonialism and empire. 

Episode Transcript

Image Credit. For educational purposes only. 

Image Caption: The central atrium of the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam. Straight-view of the barrel-vaulted space from the middle of the room, oriented length-wise with the central staircase in the background. Gallery spaces are visible along top level above the stairs and light streams in from a glass-and-steel half-cylindrical dome at the top. 

Credits: 

Introduction: Deborah Thomas 

Interviewer: Chris Green 

Recorder: Kyle Olson 

Producer: Kyle Olson

Featured Audio:

KOKOROKO -  "Abusey Junction // We Out Here"

Bob Marley and the Wailers - "War"