'Colonial objects'? Museum decolonisation, binaries and autoethnography in Northern Ireland

Briony Widdis

doi:10.4324/9781003218241-7

'Colonial objects'? Museum decolonisation, binaries and autoethnography in Northern Ireland

Briony Widdis

School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

35 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This chapter begins with an autoethnographic exploration of the Northern Irish author’s experience of inheriting family possessions from Hong Kong, Ireland and Britain. It considers whether the term ‘colonial object’ can be applied to these items and suggests that, in addition to representing a geopolitically colonised individual, group, or place, as do many of those in museums, such an item might also be one that has been used to perpetuate ideas about the ‘other’.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Public history in Ireland: difficult histories
Editors	Leonie Hannan, Olwen Purdue
Publisher	Routledge
Chapter	6
Pages	122-152
Number of pages	31
ISBN (Electronic)	9781003218241
ISBN (Print)	9781032110592, 9781032110608
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003218241-7
Publication status	Published - 28 Jun 2024

Publication series

Name	Global Perspectives on Public History

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

colonial
object
binaries: general
Northern Ireland
Ireland
autoethnography
collections
museum
family
complex histories
nuance
legacies
afterlives
postcolonial
identity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Arts and Humanities

Access to Document

10.4324/9781003218241-7Licence: Unspecified

'Colonial objects'? Museum decolonisation, binaries and autoethnography in Northern Ireland
Copyright 2024 The Author. This manuscript is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits distribution and reproduction for non-commercial purposes, provided the author and source are cited.
Accepted author manuscript, 698 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Many Memories, Many Voices (MMMV) interviews
Widdis, B. (Creator) & Reisz, E. (Creator), Queen's University Belfast, 31 Aug 2024
https://www.mmmv.org/explore
Dataset

Cite this

@inbook{122eaa1fe22343a6ae39f4ad8e38451c,

title = "'Colonial objects'? Museum decolonisation, binaries and autoethnography in Northern Ireland",

abstract = "This chapter begins with an autoethnographic exploration of the Northern Irish author{\textquoteright}s experience of inheriting family possessions from Hong Kong, Ireland and Britain. It considers whether the term {\textquoteleft}colonial object{\textquoteright} can be applied to these items and suggests that, in addition to representing a geopolitically colonised individual, group, or place, as do many of those in museums, such an item might also be one that has been used to perpetuate ideas about the {\textquoteleft}other{\textquoteright}. ",

keywords = "colonial, object, binaries: general, Northern Ireland, Ireland, autoethnography, collections, museum, family, complex histories, nuance, legacies, afterlives, postcolonial, identity",

author = "Briony Widdis",

year = "2024",

month = jun,

day = "28",

doi = "10.4324/9781003218241-7",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781032110592",

series = "Global Perspectives on Public History",

publisher = "Routledge",

pages = "122--152",

editor = "Leonie Hannan and Olwen Purdue",

booktitle = "Public history in Ireland: difficult histories",

}

TY - CHAP

T1 - 'Colonial objects'? Museum decolonisation, binaries and autoethnography in Northern Ireland

AU - Widdis, Briony

PY - 2024/6/28

Y1 - 2024/6/28

N2 - This chapter begins with an autoethnographic exploration of the Northern Irish author’s experience of inheriting family possessions from Hong Kong, Ireland and Britain. It considers whether the term ‘colonial object’ can be applied to these items and suggests that, in addition to representing a geopolitically colonised individual, group, or place, as do many of those in museums, such an item might also be one that has been used to perpetuate ideas about the ‘other’.

AB - This chapter begins with an autoethnographic exploration of the Northern Irish author’s experience of inheriting family possessions from Hong Kong, Ireland and Britain. It considers whether the term ‘colonial object’ can be applied to these items and suggests that, in addition to representing a geopolitically colonised individual, group, or place, as do many of those in museums, such an item might also be one that has been used to perpetuate ideas about the ‘other’.

KW - colonial

KW - object

KW - binaries: general

KW - Northern Ireland

KW - Ireland

KW - autoethnography

KW - collections

KW - museum

KW - family

KW - complex histories

KW - nuance

KW - legacies

KW - afterlives

KW - postcolonial

KW - identity

U2 - 10.4324/9781003218241-7

DO - 10.4324/9781003218241-7

M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)

SN - 9781032110592

SN - 9781032110608

T3 - Global Perspectives on Public History

SP - 122

EP - 152

BT - Public history in Ireland: difficult histories

A2 - Hannan, Leonie

A2 - Purdue, Olwen

PB - Routledge

ER -

'Colonial objects'? Museum decolonisation, binaries and autoethnography in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Publication series

UN SDGs

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Datasets

Many Memories, Many Voices (MMMV) interviews

Cite this