TALKING P OINT
Tayiana Chao and Olivia Windham-Stewart
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF BRITISH COLONIALISM.
Museums are not analgesic spaces where controversial histories can be rendered safe and printed on souvenirs
Chao (right) and Windham-Stewart are part of the team that founded the MBC
Founders, Museum of British Colonialism
What are the aims of the Museum
project and exhibition we embarked
to an inflated sense of moral high
of British Colonialism?
upon aimed to uncover and digitally
ground in Britain and other former
The Museum of British Colonialism
reconstruct detention camps from
coloniser countries making it very
was founded in January 2018 by a
the Mau Mau Emergency in Kenya.
hard to challenge effectively.
UK who recognised the need for a
Why is it so important to tell
this skewed narrative of British
space to restore and make visible
the story of British colonialism
colonialism, whilst at the same time
the suppressed, destroyed, or under-
and what role should museums
having the power to correct it. We
represented histories relating to
play in telling that story?
hope that other museums will follow
British colonialism. We're entirely
A triumphant and benevolent version
our model and portray a fuller picture
run by volunteers in both Kenya
of the story of British colonialism
of the history which, no matter how
and the UK from a very mixed range
has been told for a very long time.
controversial, needs to be told. This
of professions and backgrounds.
This is far from the whole story and
will include a difficult conversation
We're a virtual museum but the
the lack of honest and self-reflecting
that museums need to have about how
work we do also has a physical
analysis of this story has had real
some of the objects they display were
presence, for example, the first
world consequences. It has also led
acquired, and whether or not they
group of women in Kenya and the
Museums are guilty of portraying
should continue to be housed there. How will 'visitors' access the stories that will come from the museum? We're primarily an online, digital museum however we do hold exhibitions, film screenings, and other events both in Kenya, the UK and beyond. With the global pandemic all our activities have moved online Screening of Operation Legacy, a documentary co-produced by MBC about the Mau Mau Emergency
but we hope to return to the ‘real world’ at some point in the future. Being a digital museum allows us to have many more ‘visitors’ than if we were tied to a physical space and we
40
attractionsmanagement.com 1 2021