Due to colonialism and looting, many Western cultural heritage institutions have numerous items in their collections that belong to other countries and communities. What can be done to amend the status quo? This session provides examples of current policies and processes of governments, institutions and individuals related to the repatriation of cultural objects. Panelists discuss the challenges of and opportunities for decolonizing libraries, archives and museums, including the importance of reparative and cooperative practices.
Speakers:
Leila Amineddoleh, Founding Partner, Amineddoleh & Associates, LLC; Adjunct Professor of Law, New York University
Damien Webb (Palawa), Manager, Indigenous Engagement Branch, State Library of New South Wales
Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Professor, Central European University - Vienna
Moderator: T-Kay Sangwand, Librarian for Digital Collection Development, UCLA Library
About the Speakers
Leila A. Amineddoleh (she/her) is a leading expert in art, cultural heritage, and intellectual property law. She represents collectors, museums, galleries, dealers, non-profits, artists, estates, foundations and foreign governments. She has been involved in high-profile contractual disputes, cultural heritage law violations, the recovery of stolen art and antiquities, complex fraud schemes, authentication disputes, art-backed loans, and the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars of art and collectibles. Leila regularly lectures internationally and publishes on a wide variety of legal topics, and she teaches International Art & Cultural Heritage Law at Fordham University School of Law, in addition to Art Crime and the Law at New York University.
Damien Webb (he/his) is a Queer Palawa man (from South-East Tasmania) who has worked in a number of roles at both the Western Australian and New South Wales state libraries. He previously coordinated the State Library of Western Australia’s Storylines Project and has a passion for decolonising archives and library collections. In his current role, he works with a small team of dedicated Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff to Indigenise colonial institutional collections and practices.
Dr. Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll is an artist and historian currently leading the project REPATRIATES: Artistic Research in Museums and Communities in the Process of Repatriation from Europe(opens in a new tab). She is Professor of History at the Central European University in Vienna and Honorary Professor and Chair of Global Art at the University of Birmingham. She is the author of: Art in the Time of Colony (2014), The Importance of Being Anachronistic (2016), Botanical Drift (2017), Bordered Lives (2020), Mit Fremden Federn (2022), and The Contested Crown: Repatriation Politics Between Mexico and Europe (2022).
T-Kay Sangwand is a Certified Archivist, librarian, and DJ. Over the past thirteen years she has worked with UCLA and UT Austin to build preservation partnerships for human rights documentation and cultural heritage materials in the US, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. She holds a MLIS and MA in Latin American Studies from UCLA. In 2017, she was named a Fulbright Specialist in Library and Information Science and in 2018-2019, she was a Fulbright Scholar with Mexico’s Ministry of Culture. Since 2001, T-Kay has worked in community radio and currently hosts the dublab internet radio(opens in a new tab) program “The Archive of Feelings”.
