Hannah Crowdy, Head Of Curatorial for National Museums NI
Museums and institutions around the world are actively decolonising their collections and practices to provide a renewed perspective on the history of their artefacts.
Iarsmaí (Remnants) explores the issues around decolonisation, which is partly a response to the Rhodes Must Fall and Black Lives Matter campaigns and a more progressive approach to dealing with the past.
From stolen skulls in Trinity College Dublin, to the ongoing presence of colonial artefacts in museums in Belfast, Dublin and Oxford, the film examines the legacy and ethical issues associated with artefacts that are historically linked to the time of British Empire.
At the Ulster Museum, Hannah Crowdy, Head Of Curatorial for National Museums NI, says, “Curation is an act of storytelling,” and talks about the museum’s ongoing work to trace the provenance of objects and how they were collected, including Aboriginal artefacts.
While historian Fearghal Mac Bhloscaigh talks about the colonial geography that is reflected in Belfast’s street names and statues.
Irish broadcaster Ola Majekodunmi looking at a Benin Bronze in the National Museum of Ireland
Irish broadcaster Ola Majekodunmi takes a tour exploring the city of Oxford’s colonial past and reflects on the ongoing campaign to remove the Cecil Rhodes statue.
Ola, a Dubliner who was born in Nigeria, is on a journey of discovery to the city of Benin in her country of birth to find out more about the colonial period and the global campaign to repatriate the Benin Bronzes which are held in museums across the world.
At the National Museum in Dublin, Ola meets Aoife O'Brien, curator of the ethnographic collection. Aoife explains how some of the objects were stolen or taken unethically while Ireland was still part of the British Empire, but others were collected and gifted and discusses the importance of establishing where an object came from.
Marie Coyne ,Contributor Marie Coyne from Inishbofin, a small island off the coast of Galway
The film also follows the story of 13 skulls that were stolen from a graveyard on Inishbofin, a small island off the coast of Galway, in 1892.
A group of islanders lead by Marie Coyne and assisted by historian Ciarán Walsh, have been engaging with Trinity College, Dublin where the skulls have been housed. They are seeking to have the skulls repatriated from the Museum of Anatomy at the College for burial on the island.
Iarsmaí airs on BBC Two Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 13 October at 9.50pm.
Benin Bronze
This new feature length film, on BBC Two Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 13 October at 9.50pm, was made for BBC Gaeilge and TG4 by Dearcán Media and Tua Films with support from Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Coimisiún na Meán.