Decolonize Museums

Decolonize That!

by Shimrit Lee, Bhakti Shringarpure (Editor)

Behold the sleazy logic of museums: plunder dressed up as charity, conservation, and care.

The idealized Western museum, as typified by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, and the Museum of Natural History, has remained much the same for over a century: a uniquely rarified public space of cool stone, providing an experience of leisure and education for the general public while carefully tending fragile artifacts from distant lands. As questions about representation and ethics have increasingly arisen, these institutions have proclaimed their interest in diversity and responsible conservation, asserting both their adaptability and their immovably essential role in a flourishing and culturally rich society.

With Decolonize Museums, Shimrit Lee punctures this fantasy, tracing the essentially colonial origins of the concept of the museum. White Europeans' atrocities were reimagined through narratives of benign curiosity and abundant respect for the occupied or annihilated culture, and these racist narratives, Lee argues, remain integral to the authority exercised by museums today. Citing pop culture references from Indiana Jones to Black Panther, and highlighting crucial activist campaigns and legal action to redress the harms perpetrated by museums and their proxies, Decolonize Museums argues that we must face a dismantling of these seemingly eternal edifices, and consider what, if anything, might take their place.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Art, History, Essays, Race, Museums

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 21, 2022

Reviews

[kgures · Rating 4 out of 5]

i need to reread the last 30 pages i saw an alligator walk out of the lake and got scared

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars. Shimrit Lee's 'Decolonize Museums' is an insightful and thought-provoking book that delves deep into the complex issue of museums and their role in perpetuating systems of power and erasure. Lee presents a well-researched and totally compelling and sound argument fr why decolonisation is essential in the museum industry, and how it can be achieved. Lee’s writing is clear, concise, and engaging, making this book accessible to a wide range of people. Would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to deepen their understanding on decolonisation and the dark history of museums.

This book's central message is clear: museums are failing people of colour, and it is well past time fr change. Lee explores how museums have become complicit in the erasure of marginalised voices and histories under the guise of preservation and education. She explains how aestheticising cultural pieces is a form of sanitising and white-washing, that relegates the imperial violence involved in the acquisition of these pieces into the background, converting them frm objects violently plundered frm the colonies into “pure works of art”, and why reparations, alongside repatriation, should be the focus of museums.

One of the most significant strengths of the book is the way in which it highlights the work of the groups fighting for repatriation and decolonisation in museums. Lee explores how these groups are challenging the status quo and pushing fr change in the industry. But despite the challenges that remain, Lee is optimistic about the progress being made. She acknowledges that protests and boycotts must continue to keep museums accountable and that museums must do more to listen to the voices of marginalised communities.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

came for work stayed for pleasure

[Sasha Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read very slowly but very good and amazingly researched. Interesting reading this in 2025 (when conversations about BLM and anti-racism have depressingly dropped off) when it was written in 2021.

[Ayah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading about the history of colonialism in Museums is not surprising in the slightest, what is, is the fact that protesting and radical resistance has been historical.

[Liana · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve ever felt weird, or strangely guilty looking at the Ancient Egypt exhibit in Met, or wondered why the heck the Temple of Dendur ended up all the way in New York City- this book will explain why.

Learning about colonization through one of its main avenues: art, museums, aesthetics- was incredibly interesting. We all know that high school gave us a sanitized view of colonization, and this book gives us all the dirt.

Some takeaways:
- Reparations over repatriation.
- Aestheticizing cultural pieces is sanitizing/white washing
- Progress is being made, but protests and boycotts must continue to keep museums accountable.
- Artwashing is a gentrifier in LA (Chinatown, Boyle heights etc)
- The narrative that museums present about how objects in museums belong to “all humans” and should stay there for the sake of “celebrating universality of the human experience” is a distraction from the colonizer history of most stolen artifacts.

[Rheanna Ganapathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was really informative and i appreciated all the examples used across time and geography. i also like that the author didn’t only focus on the money and profit impact of colonization but also the impact on community and identity and safety and pride. i liked the different sections of the book as well. i think there was an interesting push and pull too between acknowledging the progress made but also recognizing that it’s not even close to enough, and being able to see through liberal performance. i was wondering at times where to be careful of backlash effects from defensiveness but also where to pursue principles and knowing that norms change as we make more radical perspectives louder in society. i also liked the way that the author considered artist perspectives and activists and differentiated that from those who run museums.

i would recommend this to friends who love going to museums!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave me a lot to think about. The author does an excellent job of making the case for decolonising our thinking around museums, explaining how colonial thinking and approaches are present in these institutions, and suggesting a clear path forward to rectify this situation.

[Andrea Montan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much of this information wasn’t new to me. I’ve heard these facts and stories piecemeal and in isolation over the years. But learning how they all fit together to produce this timeline of museum history based on imperialism and colonialism was paradigm shifting. White supremacy ideology is so ingrained in everything and everyone in the “Western” world that we aren’t even aware of it. So many things are as the author writes, “subtle and elaborate propaganda.” Also, go ahead and google “human zoo.” My capacity to still be surprised in 2024 is bafflingly.

[Sarah Engle · Rating 5 out of 5]

very informative, very reflective on the systems of power that remain in place to erase history under the guise of preservation and education. Alongside all the information shared on the ways museums are failing; i was happy to learn about all of the groups fighting for repatriation and decolonization in these spaces.

im looking forward to exploring the other books in this series; 4.5/5

[Adriana Croce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredibly interesting dive into the history of decolonizing museum spaces as well as the many different ways in which this has to be considered. Makes readers think about these narratives in new ways and opened my eyes to important struggles that remain hidden, despite the current progress.

[Amirah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this to be a pretty accessible and comprehensive (as far as I can tell) overview of the colonial foundations of museums and the unsuccessful and partially-successful approaches taken to address those foundations to date (as of 2022).

[Hallie]

read for e-flux podcast :)

[Jacqueline Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/4

strong book. amazingly laid out first chapter. dragged toward the end.

[sarah An · Rating 4 out of 5]

great overview on the extensive history on all these problematic ass museums out there . did buy this book at tate museum tho

[Elena Sinagra · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important read for anyone in the museum world.

[Marni LaRose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for everyone! It is truly enlightening. I believe after reading this treatise it will be near impossible to experience a museum collection, exhibit or even view a museum building itself quite the same way, ever again. It is a well-organized, fascinating study on a complicated, multi-faceted subject which the author nevertheless makes easily accessible to all, including those of us without any background or expertise on the topic. Though it is an evolving subject which continues to foster ongoing dialogue, (which the author fully acknowledges and encourages), the volume is remarkably authoritative and complete.