GOING HOME

GOING HOME: Beyond The Collection is a (diaspora) community centered participatory and work-in-progress project by Beyond Walls. It’s aim is to structurally embed voices from communities linked to colonial collections in decision-making policies on restitution, reparations and more. This project departs from the Dutch policy vision of the Ministry of Culture and Education (OCW) on colonial collections.

The politics of belonging
BEYOND THE COLLECTION evolves in close collaboration with different stakeholders and groups. An important focus of BEYOND THE COLLECTION is the question: how can restitution policy contribute to restorative justice and processes of repair for the diverse communities in countries of origin as well as diasporic communities? A big question that raises many other related questions. Who speaks on behalf of whom? How can historical injustice be defined and by whom? What does it mean when taking this question from a (diaspora) community-centered approach? How does this relate to national and international politics and laws?

BEYOND THE COLLECTION respects the variety of perspectives, (value) systems and positionalities regarding colonial collections. We believe in a bottom-up approach that also looks beyond dominant frameworks.

BEYOND THE COLLECTION acknowledges the politics of colonial collections. The different challenges like contested visions on ownership and value systems regarding colonial ‘objects’. We believe that underlying colonial power structures are important to acknowledge when dealing with colonial collections.

Decolonial approach
We are inspired by working through the lens of decoloniality, a term coined by sociologist Anibal Quijano. Coloniality refers to the ways in which colonialism fundamentally impacted cultural, social and knowledge systems. It entails the denial, oppression and erasure of Indigenous, pre-colonial and other non-Eurocentric systems of knowing and being. And how it created still existing racialised, socio-economic and gendered hierarchies according to an invented Eurocentric standard. Decoloniality aims to detach from these structures, from the underlying logic of oppression and violence, on peoples, cultures and their knowledge and value systems etc. Decoloniality works towards options beyond the colonial framework, to relearn the knowledges that were pushed aside or erased by the forces of modernity and coloniality.

BEYOND THE COLLECTION aims to work in close collaboration with, but also beyond, academic and institutional spaces. And strives to further build this work-in-progress project based on relationship building in solidarity with communities involved.

Background BEYOND THE COLLECTION
BEYOND THE COLLECTION started in 2021 when Mondriaan Fund invited BEYOND WALLS to create two break-out sessions regarding colonial collections and the recent Dutch restitution policy vision. As part of the digital conference HERE: Heritage Reflections. In our sessions, we explored colonial heritage beyond institutional and academic frameworks. We invited participants to reflect on ownership, accountability and the role of emotions and politics related to colonial collections. Our departure question was: how can we imagine a policy on colonial collections that meet the needs of different diaspora and source communities when coloniality is deeply rooted in our institutions and ourselves?

Our session departed from our own experiences and practices. We used several fragments of our own work, like the documentary DIASPORA (2020) to spark critical conversations around colonial collections.

After our session we decided to proceed with BEYOND THE COLLECTION. It will be further developed in close collaboration with people from communities. Stay tuned for updates and sign up for our newsletter.