Decolonial Approaches and Narratives in Latin America and the Caribbean and European Museums

The growing international academic and political discussions of the past five years have further stressed the urgency of finding strategies to address colonial legacies in cultural heritage. Cultural institutions are attempting to respond to this call, yet agents have different perspectives on the influence of colonial legacies in their museological approaches and collections. Some attempts at decolonising museum discourses and practices have therefore been criticised for their limitations in acknowledging the colonial past, without addressing the more rooted and prevailing issues of coloniality in museums. In this research, we explored how ideas surrounding colonial legacies in cultural heritage are interpreted in the narratives of museums in two regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe. We studied this through the analysis of publications by museum councils, museum associations, and museum exhibitions. We identified three distinct types of narratives in our study sample: legal- and object-centred narratives, narratives of silenced stories and discomfort, and narratives of communities and reclamation of human rights. Although all selected cases under analysis aim to become more inclusive, we argue that the way these narratives are constructed impacts their frame of action and alignment with either authorised heritage discourses or decolonisation processes.