Remaking of Knowledge: podcast
The Remaking of Knowledge is a four part series on the future of ethnographic collections.
Introducing the podcast
In this series, our panel of international researchers delve into the thorny issues around ethnographic collections and their role in contemporary life. The episodes were recorded live at the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg, Sweden, September 19, 2023, as a round table event where six scholars discussed issues such as: how historic collections can shed light on environmental questions, First Nations knowledge sovereignty, working across knowledge and museum silos, and the complexities of archival decolonization.
The event was hosted by the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies and the Heritage Academy, the Swedish Museums for World Culture in collaboration with the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Gothenburg.
The recordings of the event are here published as four podcast episodes.
The podcast Remaking of Knowledge is produced by the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies at the University of Gothenburg, in collaboration with Medieteknik. Kindly supported by The Swedish Research Council via the project Objects of Science and Culture.
- Host: Anna Bohlin, Department of Global Studies and the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
- Producer: Jenny Högström Berntson, Centre for Critical Heritage Studies University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
- Executive producer: Christine Hansen, Department of Historical Studies and the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
- Recording and mix: Nicola Maniette, Medieteknik, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
- Jingle composed by: Nicola Maniette, Medieteknik, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
- Podcast logo by: Mikael Zanqrelle, Medieteknik, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Find the podcast via the regular podcatchers
For example via Spotify, Apple Podcasts and GUPlay (where you can find transcription of the episodes).
Ethnographic museums across Europe are full of objects with difficult histories that contemporary curators often struggle to navigate and the silos within which collections have been separated disallows research that might have revived lost knowledge. Through a case study of an Australian shell necklace held in the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, Sweden, this presentation will explore the opportunity to reconceive such collections as complex vectors of environmental data, traditional knowledge and social history. Reconfiguring ethnographic collections as both scientific and cultural not only invites western biodiversity scientists into ethnographic museum storehouses, it shines a light on non-western knowledge systems in communities of origin, born of deep ties to more-than-human life-worlds. In this exchange, new environmental understandings are advanced and new futures are discovered for ethnographic objects held in European collections.
Dr Christine Hansen holds a PhD in history from the Australian National University and has worked as a curator in Australia and Sweden. She held a post-doctoral position in critical heritage studies at the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies (CCHS) at the University of Gothenburg and has been affiliated to the centre for several years. She is now the principal investigator of the project Objects of Culture and Science, based at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg.
Dr Mandy Quadrio is a Trawlwoolway / Pairrebeenner woman connected to her clan Country of Tebrakunna, Cape Portland, far north-east coast of Trouwunna / Loetrouwitter / Tasmania, and the Laremairremener clan Country of Little Swanport, Oyster Bay Nation of eastern Trouwunna / Tasmania. She is also of Anglo-Irish heritage. Currently based in Meanjin / Brisbane, her artistic practice encompasses sculpture, installation, photography and mixed media. Through her practice Quadrio works to unfix racist categorisations, historic denials and imposed invisibility in relation to Aboriginal identity.
References mentioned in this episode:
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble : making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
For example: Latour, B. (2017). Facing Gaia : eight lectures on the new climatic regime (C. Porter, Trans.). Polity. Second Lecture: How not to (de-)animate nature
Todd, Z (2016) 'An Indigenous Feminist’s Take On The Ontological Turn: ‘Ontology’ Is Just Another Word For Colonialism.' Journal of Historical Sociology Vol. 29 No. 1 March 2016 DOI: 10.1111/johs.12124
Links:
The exhibition discussed: https://www.mandyquadrio.com.au/here-lies-lies/
Länk the shells in the Ethnographic museum, Stockholm: https://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-em/web/object/1958177 https://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-vkm/web/object/90936
Entangled Knowledges project aims to highlight Menang Nyungar knowledge embedded in an historic collection of fishes, mammals and artefacts held at National Museums Scotland and a portfolio of sketches of fishes held by the Natural History Museum, London. This episode explores how working in a cross-sector, collaborative and Indigenous-governed team can enrich and re-frame the understanding of collections in Museums.
Featuring:
Ass Professor Tiffany Shellam is an historian at Deakin University, Australia, who works collaboratively with the Nyungar community of Western Australian, historians, museum curators, and archivists to unearth hidden and alternative histories of 19th century encounters.
Shona Coyne is a Menang/Nyungar woman with cultural connections to Yamatji Country in Western Australia and the Scottish Highlands. She is also Head of the First Nations Collections and Community Engagement team at the National Museum of Australia.
Dr Anna Bohlin, host.
Links:
Emntangled Knowledges project: https://www.nms.ac.uk/collections-research/collections-departments/global-arts-cultures-and-design/projects/entangled-knowledges/
This episode will take its cue from Carlotta, the digital cultural archive situated in Sweden. We delve into the ethical challenges that emerge when colonial-era archival data is digitized and made accessible without (critical) discourse, thus reinforcing its acceptance as unchallenged truth. We will start from the assumption that technology is not neutral but instead has affordances which shape human interaction. This understanding leads us to explore the development of technological tools through a lens of critical design that can help us present and imagine a different kind of cultural archive. This critical design approach can help find instruments which help not only cultural archives, but also the original owners of these histories to switch the narratives inside cultural institutions. To usher in the decoloniality of information systems, we posit that cultural heritage institutions should adopt an outside-in approach to co-designing and co-governing these systems, thus necessitating partnerships with the Global South. This cooperative approach can foster digital environments where we consciously unlearn old practices and adopt new ways of working together.
Featuring
Susannah Montgomery, Deputy Director and Researcher at the Sustainable Media Lab, Inholland University of Applied Science. Over the past few years, Susannah has focused on developing strategic partnerships, programming, and research opportunities across the Creative Business domain at Inholland University of Applied Sciences. Most recently, she helped to launch Inholland’s newest living lab, the Sustainable Media Lab, which is dedicated to making technology safe, helpful, and sustainable for society, ensuring that everyone’s rights are protected – even in the digital world.
Dr Adriana Muñoz, Curator for the Americas at the National Museums of World Culture in Sweden and a judge for the European Museum of the Year Award. Born in Argentina, she has been working with the collections in Göteborg since her arrival in Sweden almost 30 years ago. Her focus within her curatorial role is giving access to collections, exhibitions, education, and increasingly, working on repatriation and provenance projects. Her research investigates the possibility of changing the narrative of the museums in the digital world.
Dr Anna Bohlin, host.
Links:
Discover Europe’s digital cultural heritage | Europeana
Carlotta, Museum of World Culture, Sweden
The project Digital Repatriation of Amazonian Cultural Heritage: A Swedish Research Council-supported project for the digitization and accessibility of cultural heritage collections (2021-2025) https://www.varldskulturmuseerna.se/forskning/pagaende-forskningsprojekt/digital-repatriation-of-cultural-heritage-in-the-global-south/
