Anniversaries

Commemorations of historical events, often marked by museums and cultural institutions on social media or through bespoke programming relating to collections that engage with the particular history being remembered. Often, these can risk presenting a sentimentalised hero-narrative, and centre the perspectives of colonisers at the expense of erasing Indigenous peoples.

Blogger, trained librarian, First Nations programmer and all-round fantastic activist Nathan “Mudyi” Sentance writes eloquently about the problematic programming and curatorial focus of the 250^th anniversary commemoration of James Cook’s Endeavour voyage in global exhibitions and museums programming. So I’ll leave the further explanation and critique to him!

See also: centring.