This is not a tick-box checklist for decolonising museum practice, but a set of ideas for action.
  • Decolonisation activity should provide cultural understanding and teach what colonisation really is for those who are confused or haven’t had a thorough enough education.
  • There is no such thing as neutrality with collections, archives or artefacts in museums. Museums must tell the truth and include this on labels. Ask who is absent from your labelling and descriptive processes – and how might you address this?
  • Interrogate funders to change their priorities to include decolonising critical practice, academic research (citational politics) and self-care of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) museum workers.
  • Prioritise new spaces conducive to decolonial thinking, theory and practice. Make a commitment to decolonising practice and support sustainability and governance of new spaces.
  • Allocate budgets to decentre whiteness. Does your museum assume a certain ethnicity, class, religious approach? How is this reflected in the way the object is visible, archived and catalogued?
  • Review boards of trustees and advisory panels.  Does the museum staffing reflect an equal recruitment policy? Look at all staff, including cleaners – where are they from, what are their stories?
  • Engage with communities more and over longer periods of time, not as an add-on. Ask them what they think and value their knowledge. Make it visible and pay people for their time. Diversify your pool for critical thought and opinion.
  • Work more collaboratively to open up stores and repositories. It is not acceptable to have artefacts, collections and archival material intrinsic to identity, socio-politics, education and cultural understanding of BAME people locked away in repositories. Is it appropriate for the objects/stories to be in museums at all? How will you honestly convey these dilemmas?
  • Make transparency part of acquisition policy. Include provenance of collections and objects, get involved with partnerships or revolving exhibitions, and inform yourselves about how museums work in other places – don’t assume.
  •  Create space for more BAME practitioners, academic historians, artists and researchers to showcase, research, and purchase art and take up of positions at directorship levels.

Sandra Shakespeare is a museum consultant