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Andratschke, Claudia, Müller, Lars and Lembke, Katja (Eds.): Provenance Research on Collections from Colonial Contexts: Principles, Approaches, Challenges, Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2023 (Veröffentlichungen des Netzwerks Provenienzforschung in Niedersachsen, Volume 5). https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1270

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https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1270
ISBN 978-3-98501-217-6 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-98501-218-3 (Softcover)

Published

12/20/2023

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Authors

Claudia Andratschke (Ed.), Lars Müller (Ed.), Katja Lembke (Ed.)

Provenance Research on Collections from Colonial Contexts

Principles, Approaches, Challenges

Veröffentlichungen des Netzwerks Provenienzforschung in Niedersachsen

This volume compiles the contributions at the International Conference of the same name, which was held at Leibniz University Hanover in June 2021. The conference was planned by the collaborative project "Provenance Research on Non-European Collections and Ethnology in Lower Saxony" (PAESE), coordinated at the State Museum Hanover. The aim was to bring together actors from different perspectives to discuss questions, methods and (preliminary) results in the field of provenance research on collections from colonial contexts.

Claudia Andratschke studied art history, history and law and received her doctorate in Tübingen. She has been working as a provenance researcher at the Lower Saxon State Museum of Hannover since 2008, responsible for all departments since 2013 and head of the department of collections and research since 2018. Since 2015, she has also been coordinator and head of the Network for provenance research in Lower Saxony. 2018-22 she was responsible for coordinating the PAESE project. The focus of her work, research and networking is on Provenance Research on cultural assets seized by the Nazis and on Collections from Colonial Contexts, as well as on questions of Standardisation and Digitisation.

Lars Müller studied history and politics. At the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig, he worked on the DFG project "Knowledge about Africa. Discourses and Practices of Textbook Development in Germany and England, 1945-1995"; in this context he also completed his phD. From 2019 to 2022, he was the academic project coordinator of the PAESE Project. In 2022, he conducted a provenance research project on Hans Schomburgk for the Museumsverband Sachsen-Anhalt. Since 2023, he has been a research fellow in the project “IN_CONTEXT. Colonial Histories and Digital Collections” at the State Library Berlin (SPK). He also researches transnational Debates on (postcolonial) Restitution.

Katja Lembke studied Classical Archaeology, Egyptology and Latin in Tübingen, Munich, Rome, and Heidelberg, where she completed her doctorate in 1992. She is corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute since 2003 and head of the research project "The Petosiris Necropolis of Hermupolis/Tuna el-Gebel" since 2004. 2005-2011 she was director of the Roemer- and Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, 2011 she became director at the Landesmuseum Hannover. Since 2015, she has been an honorary professor at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. In 2018-22, she was spokesperson for the PAESE project initiated at the Landesmuseum Hannover.

Chapters

Table of Contents
Pages
PDF
Front Matter
Contents
8-13
Katja Lembke
Opening Remarks
16-18
Welcome
Björn Thümler
Welcome
20-21
Adelheid Wessler
Welcome
22-23
Volker Epping
Welcome
24-25
Introduction
Claudia Andratschke, Lars Müller
Provenance Research and Dialogue
28-49
Opening
Syowia Kyambi
Process & Materiality
An Ongoing Conversation within Myself and Between, Spaces, Objects and the Moments Unseen
52-78
I. Dialogues between Theory and Practice
Approaches and Case Studies of Postcolonial Provenance Research
Brigitte Reinwald
Introduction
80-83
Drossilia Dikegue Igouwe
Holistic visions of Fang heritage objects
The Problem of Endogenous and Exogenous Categorisation
86-99
Bianca Baumann
What is it about?
Attempts to Interpret the Biography of a Portrait Figure from the West Region of Cameroon
102-113
II. Collecting Strategies and Collectors Networks
Jennifer Tadge
Introduction
116-117
Ndzodo Awono
Colonial Collecting Strategies
120-133
Jamie Dau
Provenance Research on Hamburg’s Colonial World Trade Networks
136-150
Olaf Geerken
Museums, Missionaries and Middlemen
German Ethnographic Museums and their Lutheran Missionary Collectors in Central Australia (1890 to 1914)
152-162
Sabine Lang
The World in Showcases
The Collectors’ Networks of the Roemer-Museum Hildesheim and the Growth of the Ethnographic Collection, 1844–1914
164-174
III. Managing, Using and Researching Objects in Collections
Hannah Stieglitz
Introduction
176-178
Katharina Nowak
Colonial Entanglement,“South Sea” Imaginations and Knowledge Production
180-191
Paule-Clisthène Dassi Koudjou
Conservations of African Cultural Heritage
A Comparative Study between Cameroon and Germany
194-204
Martin Nadarzinski
Lost Objects, Missing Documentation
Provenance Research on the Ethnographic Collection of the German Institute of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture in Witzenhausen
206-216
Hannah Stieglitz
Becoming Ethnographic Objects
Three Rattles from East Africa in the Ethnographic Collection at Göttingen University and their (Missing) Stories
218-236
IV. Transdisciplinary Provenance Research on Objects from Colonial Contexts
Sabine Lang
Introduction
238-239
Katja Kaiser
The Coloniality of Natural History Collections
242-255
Jennifer Tadge
Same Provenances in Different Disciplines
A Transdisciplinary Approach
258-270
V. Cases of Restitution
Larissa Förster
Introduction
272-276
Claudia Andratschke, Nzila M. Libanda-Mubusisi
Recent Cases of Repatriation and Restitution from Germany to Namibia
From Two Perspectives
278-289
Rainer Hatoum
Towards Restitution and Beyond
Reflections on a Multi-layered Dialogue Regarding the Cartridge Belt of Kahimemua at the Brunswick Municipal Museum
292-302
Lars Müller, Frederick Nguvauva, Werner Hillebrecht
Kahimemua Nguvauva, his Belt, and the Colonial War of 1896
Interview with Lars Müller, Frederick Nguvauva and Werner Hillebrecht
304-316
VI. Cooperation Projects on Cameroonian Collections
Experiences and Perspectives
Thomas Laely
Introduction: For Collaboration in and a broad Understanding of Provanance Research
318-322
Karin Guggeis, Ngome Elvis Nkome, Joseph B. Ebune
Entangled Objects, Entangled Histories
A Collaborative Provenance Research on a Heterogeneous Colonial-Era Collection
324-333
Isabella Bozsa, Rachel Mariembe
Re-engaging with an Ethnographic Collection from Colonial Cameroon through Collaborative Provenance Research
336-349
Silvia Forni, Hervé Youmbi
Serendipitous Intersections and Long-Term Dialogue
Art and Research as Collaborative Exchanges
352-359
VII. Hidden Objects – Sensitive and Restricted Objects in Museum Collections
Issues Surrounding their Storage, Access, Consultations, and Potential Repatriation
Mareike Späth
Introduction
362-366
Michael Pickering
First Principles
368-380
Victor Bayena Ngitir
Exhibiting Restricted Objects in Museums
Ruptures, Dilemmas and Challenges around Restitution to West Cameroon
382-391
VIII. Law versus Justice?
An Intercultural Approach to the Problem of European Collections of Colonial Provenance
Christoph-Eric Mecke
Introduction
394-396
Stephan Meder
Contexts of Colonial Acquisition
Historical and Normative Elements of Legal Provenance Research
398-414
Chief Charles A. Taku
The Legal and Moral Conscience of Justice in European Collections of Colonial Provenance
The Bangwa Quest for Restitution and Reparations
416-430
Evelien Campfens
Contested Heritage
A Human Rights Law Approach to Claims
432-446
Naazima Kamardeen
Shifting Goalposts
A Legal Perspective on Cultural Property
448-458
Christoph-Eric Mecke
Law versus Justice?
Colonial-Era Cultural Heritage in Germany
460-487
IX. Whose Voices? Beyond the PAESE-Conference
Nzila M. Libanda-Mubusisi, Albert Gouaffo, Flower Manase, Tommy Y. Buga
Whose Voices? On Power, Terminology and the Definition of Community
A Postscript
490-496
Richard Tsogang Fossi
Beyond the PAESE-Conference
Voices from Africa and Papua New Guinea
498-508
Appendix
Biographies of the Authors
510-524

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