British Museum Conference on Museums and Communities in Australia and Eastern Africa

Challenging Colonial Legacies Today: 
Museums and Communities in Australia and eastern Africa

Organised by The British Museum in association with the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, Kings College London

Time and Date: Saturday 2nd May 2015 10am – 5pm
Location: British Museum

Price: £10 or £5 Concession

Timed to coincide with the BP exhibition Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation, this one-day conference will bring together an international panel of speakers to consider how museums in both the metropole and the periphery of what was ‘empire’ are challenging colonial legacies through contemporary museum practice. Through a comparative focus on Australia and East Africa, the conference will consider the contribution which museums and their collections can make in building new and strong local communities.

Speakers:

Conference Chair: Professor Howard Morphy (Australian National University)  

Australia

Jilda Andrews (Australian National University/National Museum of Australia).  Off-country: the cultural life of collected material
Dr Louise Hamby (Australian National University).  Makarra­ta: Bringing About Understanding
Dr Ian Coates (Head Curator, National Museums of Australia).  Old Objects Made New
Dr John Carty (Australian National University).  Collecting Country: some conceptual challenges from Australia in museums, heritage and history  

Eastern Africa

Professor Annie Coombes (Birbeck, University of London). Photography Against the Grain: Rethinking the Colonial Archive in Kenyan Museums
Nelson Abiti (University of East Anglia/Uganda Museum). Title: TBC
Dr John Giblin (Head of Africa Section: British Museum). Post-Conflict Community Heritage and the Uganda Museum  

Information and booking here.
For all enquiries not related to booking please email Rachael Murphy.