Provenance Research Seminar: Reconnecting Knowledge and Heritage

When museum objects were extracted from their cultural contexts during colonial rule, important aspects of their histories, meanings and uses were lost in the process. This talk will examine how African cultural heritage and its presentation have been impacted by colonial collecting practices. It will discuss the effect of gaps and silences in museum records and consider the importance of combining institutional and community-based knowledge to expand these records. The talk will discuss how museums can partner with diaspora and descendant communities to rethink research, knowledge, interpretation, and display. 

Lucy Edematie is Curator of African Collections from Colonial Contexts at Manchester Museum. Her work focuses on African collections acquired during the colonial period, with particular attention to provenance research, decolonial practice and restitution debates. Lucy is especially interested in collaborative and community-led approaches to curating. Previously based in Kent, Lucy partnered with communities of African descent based locally and in East Africa on a research and reinterpretation project at the Powell-Cotton Museum.