Decolonisation of Past and Present Identities:

A Discussion on the Representations of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Otherness’ in UK Museums

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210519.191How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Identity, Museums, Multiculturalism, Decolonisation, Nationality, Heritage

Abstract

In this article we analyse the role of museums in building national identities and in including migrant perspectives in this process - with a focus on the United Kingdom case. We briefly examine how ideas of otherness and foreignness were built in British museums, especially through the narratives around the objects from its former colonies and the narratives about migrant influences on contemporary UK culture. We then relate this process to the recent decolonisation movements, and suggest that decolonising British museums should not only revise the narratives about its colonial past, but also revise the representation of current migrant and minority identities.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yizhu Chen
AU  - Aline Khoury
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/05/20
TI  - Decolonisation of Past and Present Identities:
BT  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 954
EP  - 957
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210519.191
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210519.191
ID  - Chen2021
ER  -