“Feeling that someone understands you and has your back makes an immeasurable difference.”
By Faiza Sultan Khan
This is part 1 of a 2 part Q&A series between Faiza Sultan Khan and the participants of the NEO Collections digital residency hosted by the Übersee-Museum Bremen.
While issues such as diversity and the bloody legacy of imperialism have long been part of conversations about museums and other cultural institutes, one could argue that they have come to a boil and reached a new state of urgency in the last few years. Inclusiveness and representation are notions that have pervaded our cultural moment to such an extent that even the most oblivious colonial institutes are currently required to address their past. Some have opted for cosmetic eye-wash solutions, not necessarily from malice but certainly from a lack of desire for real change. Others though, have had the courage to withstand turning the critical gaze upon themselves. The Übersee-Museum of ethnology, trade and natural history in Bremen feels like one of them.
It recently launched three residencies posed as three questions. The artists awarded with these residencies were then paired up with members of museum staff who wished to participate.
I sat down to discuss the residencies with four of the artists. Hinemoana Baker is a writer and musician with an eclectic career that includes film and broadcasting. Currently Berlin-based, Hinemoana was born and raised in Aotearoa, New Zealand. She was paired for her project with Emelihter Kihleng (who could not be present for this interview), a poet, curator and scholar with a focus on textiles from her home island of Pohnpei in Micronesia. Ashleigh Taupaki is currently doing a PhD at the University of Auckland and is a sculpture and installation artist and worked alongside Jasmine Tuia, a tapa maker who uses embroidery and stitching to think about cultural memory. Artist and researcher Lisa Hilli is an Australia-based cultural advisory consultant who works on curatorial development in museums in Melbourne and is currently finishing a fellowship at the Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum where she has been working on a colonial research project. She did not work with a collaborator.
Faiza Sultan Khan: Tell us a bit about your projects.
“We did a lot of thinking rather than doing which was pretty different for us, we’d assumed at the start of this that we’d have to have a resolution, which wasn’t the case.”
Ashleigh Taupaki: We were responding to three concepts, Jasmine and my project addressed the question ‘Can we present an online exhibition where objects will be unnamed, re-named or named in their original language — and does it change the visitor experience?’ All of our projects involved being paired with museum staff. Jasmine and I were paired with a taxonomist/biologist with a huge passion for Siapo. Through our discussions, he understood that the object isn’t necessarily a name but a soul. We eventually came to the conclusion that we should chuck the naming of things out the window and look at the life-cycle of the object — the material, where it was sourced, the people who created it, its own narrative. His attitude of openness to our ideas saw us shedding our reservations, we didn’t hold back.
We thought of our own artistic practices, of how we’d sourced pigments, what we photographed, and looked at the parallels between our practices and traditional practices. We did a lot of thinking rather than doing which was pretty different for us, we’d assumed at the start of this that we’d have to have a resolution, which wasn’t the case. What we did end up with were a series of ideas, we’re planning to hold a physical exhibition in New Zealand, to bring objects to a space and ask invite communities to come and talk about these objects, to talk about their identity and how they relate to these objects and materials.
Hinemoana Baker: Our project responded to the concept ‘How would you reconcile historical objects with contemporary stories in a multisensory way?’ We responded to treasures with poetry, we wrote poetry as the object and between the objects. The curators we were paired with provided us with photos of objects. I felt able to communicate with them openly, even on sensitive issues. One sticking point we had was that they seemed uncomfortable with the notion of leaving some of the languages untranslated. It’s an honour to be translated of course but there are different ways in which to imagine translation. The project asked me to really slow down my thinking and make me ask why translation of indigenous languages isn’t always a good thing. There is of course the violence inherent to any translation in which language can lose some of its nuance and specificity. But also, the notion that perhaps the speakers of European languages shouldn’t have to know everything in order to respect it. Let the indigenous speakers understand it and accept that there are some things you cannot grasp outside of that culture.
Lisa Hilli: I was responding to the concept ‘What would an online exhibition that explains “Germany” to Pacific Islanders look like?’ I was working with historians on how to explain Germany to the Pacific. I was fascinated by that question of what Germany is. And interestingly, not one of classically trained historians I was paired with found this question easy to answer. It seemed to cause some anxiety. Growing up in Australia the most common question to me was ‘Where are you from?’ The deep underlying question to that question is ‘I don’t know who I am, who are you?’ I don’t know anything about Germany, and I started asking really honest questions. This led to a really fascinating conversation among the three of them which was enlightening for them as well as for me. I need my German collaborators to be conscious of their German identity. That wasn’t an easy thing to say. I made a bank of questions which came from Pacific values and Pacific thinking broken up into the cultural pillars of Family, Spirituality, Culture and Food. I wanted to know about German spiritual beliefs and practices before Christianity, I wanted to know what the average German person thought about Germans travelling to the Pacific to share their culture and spirituality with Pacific people. The indigenising and decolonising process of museums starts with decolonising people’s minds.
FSK: Are we seeing a meaningful shift regarding European museums and a more self-aware and self-critical way of engaging with their collections of colonial artefacts and did you have any concerns regarding work with a colonial institution?
“People in charge of colonial institutions have a hard time feeling discomfort, they don’t like it. They don’t want to be demoted from their positions or for there to be a meaningful paradigm shift that would make space for people like us.”
Hinemoana Baker: We had low expectations; we’ve worked with European museums before.
Lisa Hilli: I’ve had my concerns about tokenism in this field. People in charge of colonial institutions have a hard time feeling discomfort, they don’t like it. They don’t want to be demoted from their positions or for there to be a meaningful paradigm shift that would make space for people like us. One of my concerns is sometimes institutions handpick people from indigenous communities who are often not the best-placed to serve their communities and the institution. It can sometimes be more of a case of personal gain, to have fellow Pacific Islanders fighting for these limited positions to align themselves to people and institutions who prioritise furthering their careers rather than what’s best for Pacific communities collectively. I’m very keen to see for institutions go beyond an optics only approach. In the past I have found photographs of myself working in an institution on pamphlets advertising and supporting philanthropy campaigns without my knowledge or consent. I was also keenly aware of the lack of cultural safety. A greater awareness is needed for indigenous psychological, spiritual, and emotional safety in cultural institutions. I’ve encountered many things I wasn’t meant to see culturally, while looking at collections and database systems as well as clumsy and insensitive comments by colleagues. I’ve also had to deal with things that weren’t part of my job description in the past, because I’m from the Pacific Islands I’m called in for anything to do with Melanesia, regardless of my field of expertise, I become the sole authentic voice and carry the burden of the mental labour. This is a position I’m quite uncomfortable with.
Jasmine Tuia: I also had my concerns about tokenism and more so I was worried about something being taken without it being reciprocated to my community — of a one-way relationship.
FSK: And how was it in this case?
“…I felt like there were some distinct differences to this project, firstly, it had clear boundaries and no one was promising overnight change.”
Hinemoana Baker: It’s been better than I thought — a pleasant surprise. Though I’m aware that it’s a tiny part of the beginning with the ultimate aim of creating a digital version of their museum online without replicating the colonial mentality. I have no illusions about how it might look in the end. But I felt like there were some distinct differences to this project, firstly, it had clear boundaries and no one was promising overnight change. Secondly, the involvement of Abhay Adhikari, the Digital Partner of NEO Collections brought a different energy to the project for me, he acted as a buffer between the institutions and us. Some of the conversations with curators for example could be difficult but because we had him in our court, I felt much more emboldened to respond honestly to any issues.
Lisa Hilli: I also felt that Abhay brought a lot of trust into this project, he understood what we were saying and encouraged me to speak my mind. Feeling that someone understands you and has your back makes an immeasurable difference. It allowed me to overcome my hesitation to putting potentially sensitive questions in my prototype. This was how, for example, I realised I could challenge Germans about their history in Papua New Guinea without them being defensive. This I found to be a big cultural difference from the social environment I was accustomed to. Germans prefer honesty over friendliness, I happily discovered. It taught me to get over some of my own discomfort about being direct. There is still that fragment of doubt as to what they will do with our beautiful treasures, and how our labour could be mis-used but regarding the work I’ve done, the residency went beyond my expectations
Afterthought
When I spoke to the artists involved in this residency, they seemed without exception pleasantly surprised by their experience with the Übersee-Museum. Something different was happening, based on my own less than inspiring experiences in publishing, I’d even call it radical. What was the factor at work that made these residencies different? By my estimation, this was trust, the creation of a comfort zone, an unthreatening space and the assurance that the artists were in fact welcome to disagree with museum professionals. This leads to the question of how a space to speak freely can be created within a power imbalance. It happens when people with power choose to give up their fragility, when they are able to sit with discomfort and with criticism without hoisting up their defences. Another radical factor I thought was the notion that an honest exchange is in itself a positive result, without it necessarily resulting in say, a piece of art.
While the intent to be open and receptive rather than defensive should be a given when inviting marginalised people to discuss their ideas with powerful institutes under the umbrella of diversity, I can assure you as one who’s addressed similar issues in the UK, this is far from the norm. The norm is strategies conceived by people in positions of power with very little consultation or input from the people they are allegedly trying to include, or choosing opportunists who align with their most simplistic views. More complex, potentially challenging conversations are freighted at worst with the fear of punitive consequences for minorities who say unpopular things, and at the least with the onus falling on minorities to not wound the person representing the institution. As such, these exchanges can become at best window-dressing leaving only one party satisfied and none the wiser. I do not believe this was the case here.
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Faiza Sultan Khan is former Consulting Editor at Bloomsbury UK and now a freelance editor, literary mentor, creative consultant and culture writer. She has worked with critically and commercially successful authors including Women’s Prize winners and Booker nominees. Her writing on arts and culture has appeared in publications including the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Daily Beast and Caravan and Mint Lounge in India. She is co-host of Browned Off, a critically acclaimed podcast which casts a critical eye on diversity and representation in books and films.
NEO Collections is funded by the Digital Culture Programme of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftrage der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media) until the end of 2023.
