Cultural Returns and Collaborations: Colonial Legacies and Future Connections

This talk will examine how Perth Museum is moving forward in its understanding and response to its inheritance of colonial collecting practices that have shaped its collection.

Mark Hall, Collections Officer, will review the Museum’s history and its origins with the Perth Literary & Antiquarian Society and how they amassed or assembled material from across the globe, often in the orbit of the British Empire and its trading and military enterprises.

Moving on to consider the current Perth Museum, Mark will discuss how our colonial legacies have been addressed and how we respond equitably to First Nation communities around the world. Looking specifically at our collaboration with the Māori of Aotearoa or New Zealand including cultural returns, a Memorandum of Understanding and the co-curation element within the new Museum.