The Whole Picture: The colonial story of the art in our museums & why we need to talk about it

by Alice Procter

There is no perfect home for them, since the identities they speak to – Britain as colonial power, Australia as colonial subject – are so tightly knit together, even as they try to separate themselves.

At the very least, it is important to make that obvious, by representing his story as accurately and completely as possible in galleries.

first step. We must hold the objects we are going to see here gently. Even more than the stories you have already read, these ones need your sensitivity and empathy. Feel grief, feel rage where it is necessary.

How often do we get to be truly emotional in a museum? There are so many objects that relate to experiences of trauma – and many of the pieces we have seen so far can be read in that way – but it is rare for an object to be displayed as a source of emotion.

The display of ancestors is culturally varied, and I am by no means suggesting that all mortuary practices should be veiled and made secret. The problem is that it’s not usually a part of funeral rites for individuals to be exhumed and laid out in galleries – often far from their original resting places – and presented to visitors.

It’s not a question of simply replacing one statue with another: identifying figures who might be more deserving, and making space for their narratives, can be a step towards a more accurate appraisal of history, and genuine reflection. This is not ‘imposing modern values’; it is acknowledging that even in the 18th or 19th centuries people were – in modern parlance – capable of calling a racist a racist.

I hope I have shown throughout the book that, in many cases, galleries have enough problems of their own to be getting on with before adding monuments to the pile. But these subjects do need to be addressed in relation to each other.

The proposed new definition is utopian, rather than practical. It represents the ideal of what museums could be, rather than their current reality. The backlash gives an insight into an identity crisis in the museum world.

It’s rare now to be part of a debate where the position is entertained that museums are absolutely fine and not at all racist, which is some relief. But I am bored of discussions and workshops where everyone agrees on the problems of museums, and yet nothing changes. I have never been an optimist, but it’s bleak to feel the hope being wrung out of me.