Returning Archives – Archiving Return
- Period: October 2024 – September 2028
- Status: ongoing
This proposal examines archives as both objects and instruments of colonial restitution in the Netherlands within frameworks of transformative justice. European governments have made the return of objects acquired in a colonial context a central form of engagement with their colonial past. Archives play a fundamental role in this process because they store knowledge about the provenance of objects. Archives are not neutral in this process: decisions about what to archive and how are highly biased because the plundering of archives has been a colonial practice in itself.
By comparing two case studies of archive restitution to Indonesia and Suriname, this interdisciplinary proposal, which connects archive, historical and memory studies, investigates ways in which archive colonial restitution practices are shaped by underlying power differences. The aim is to answer the question under what conditions the return of archives can contribute to transformative justice and thus to guidelines for restitution that are more inclusive and equitable.
Researchers
- Leah Niederhausen (project leader)
- Nicole Immler
- Wouter Veraart