Museum Responsibility: Challenging Weaponised Heritage and Reactionary Responses to Anti-Colonial Approaches

In 2020, an intense pressure was applied to the heritage sector to acknowledge and challenge systemic racism in addition the perpetuation of colonial violence within its various institutions. Though many organisations responded to the call for accountability with an acknowledgement of colonialism’s ongoing impact, reactionary voices rose in chorus to demand the conservation of existing narratives and systems. This backlash, created and spread by both government and media, provided an insight into the museum sector’s ongoing complicity in white supremacy and the construction of white safe spaces. In addition, this reactionary response to the drive towards reparation highlights conceptions of ‘psychological ownership’ and security in fixed, often patriotic forms of perceived belonging. This paper asks the question: what could anticolonial work look like in the face of such opposition, and to what extent is it the responsibility of museums to undertake it? If a sense of justice or reparation is ever to be achieved within the spheres of heritage and education, it is imperative that museums utilise their influence and supposed purpose to enable the communities their collections represent in leading the way.