Three times in a row, and it becomes a custom. Almost everything that matters in museology in the world met in person and virtually in Montreal for four days, in March 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, for the 44e annual symposium of the International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM). The Gotha of scholars then chose the theme of the decolonization of the museum sector, as in the Caribbean in 2020 and in Scotland in 2022.
The transformation in this sense of the National Gallery of Canada is therefore tied to an undercurrent that concerns all the establishments of this globalized world — and this, well beyond questions of good or bad management of decolonizing change in Ottawa. A cultural war, a new quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns, is spreading in and around museums as institutional repositories of symbols, art, history, memory, nation and, ultimately, life. -together.
“Addressing the theme of colonization has opened the door to a host of criticisms of their fundamental missions in societal debates, summarizes the special issue of the ICOFOM magazine entitled The Decolonization of Museology: Museums, Mixing, and Myths of Origin, published since the symposium. The reproaches are numerous and sometimes bitter at the place of the museums, as if one blames them for not contributing more to a new social order. Moreover, we end up believing that the challenge of social justice [leur] is more incumbent than on the governments, whose first obligation it is. On the other hand, one can wonder why [ils] wish to assume this disproportionate responsibility. »
This excerpt from the review’s introductory text is co-signed by Yves Bergeron, holder of the Chair in Museum Governance and Cultural Law at UQAM, the host institution of the Montreal meeting. The professor obviously follows the revolutionary reform under way in Ottawa, while shedding light on it from a broad perspective.
The specialist highlights two movements linked to decolonization: that of the new museology and that of the generational divide.
There has been a lot of talk about decolonization for only a year or two in Canadian cultural institutions
The new museology. Postcolonial theories on questions of power and representation in culture have permeated disciplines such as history and literature for decades. This perspective criticizes the predominance of the Western colonial model. Criticism of the Eurocentric point of view in the museum and heritage sectors began in the 1970s in South America, particularly in Chile. The first art museums have in turn embarked on this path for about a decade, with enormous consequences for the role and authority of the expert. “Museums were historically based on the logic of the masterpiece and the search for excellence, where the art market served as a filter – with gallery owners, exhibitions, collectors, museums, says Professor Bergeron. Filters that helped define excellence. It was also the role of museums to select. Now, the masterpiece becomes identity. If museums consider acquisitions with quotas — percentage of works of diversity, Aboriginals, blacks, women — that upsets their traditional logic. »
The generational divide. It also amplifies the effect of the crisis. The Quebec museologist explains that at the General Conference of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), in Kyoto in 2019 and in Prague at the beginning of 2022, a new generation of the discipline wanted to include in the mandates of museums that they are responsible for planetary well-being, and nothing less. “Museum culture is not going to change in three years. It is the business of generations, of 10 or 20 years, says Mr. Bergeron. Obviously, at the NGC, we try to accelerate change, and that creates resistance. This is a movement that had already begun and that we see here as in Europe. This is where we are going. But the museum must remain a place of reflection, not of propaganda. »
Canada at the forefront of strategy
The decolonization of museums is progressing everywhere with effects on exhibitions, even the restitution of complete collections. Canadian cultural institutions are at the center of the movement’s hard core, with particularities stemming from its history as a colonized territory where approximately two million Aboriginal people from some fifty nations live.
“Canada is ahead on all these questions,” says Jean-Philippe Uzel, professor in the Department of Art History at UQAM, a leading specialist in decolonial strategies, particularly through contemporary Aboriginal art. “If Canada does not engage in decolonization, one wonders who will. Certainly not the United States. »
Changes in favor of a national review of Canadian museum practices and policies have accelerated since the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2008-2015). The Canadian Museums Association released a “groundbreaking” report in September, calling for “support for Indigenous-led organizations, initiatives and self-determination at all levels of museum operations and in all within the country’s museums.
“There has been a lot of talk about decolonization for only a year or two in Canadian cultural institutions,” notes Professor Uzel. Instead, at the Canada Council, a process of reconciliation began in the middle of the last decade. We have since taken a new turn, as if reconciliation were not enough. The dynamic of decolonization poses questions to the institutions which must do their examination of conscience, and that creates tensions, that’s for sure. It is a painful process. We see it with the NGC. »
The Five-Year Strategic Plan (2021-2026) transform together led to the creation, in early 2022, of a department called Indigenous Ways and Decolonization responsible for relaying the vision of the First Nations (we will come back to this in a future article) at the heart of the museum’s mission. This department has a transversal mission with effects on conservation, exhibitions, relations with the public. In addition, the strategic plan adds to the EDI standards (equality, diversity, inclusion), adopted everywhere in Canadian society, two other guiding principles of conduct relating to justice and accessibility, concentrating the mentioned principles of new museology and the new generational perspective.
“The situation should not be dramatized either,” says Professor Uzel. You have to go beyond words, agree to look yourself in the face. Change can create tension, but it is nevertheless useful and necessary. »