Curation by the Living Dead: Exploring the Legacy of Norwegian Museums’ Colonial Collections

Abstract

ABSTRACT While the history of Norwegian museum acquisitions and collection formation has long been a topic of research, the extent to which colonial structures are still embedded in various Norwegian collecting institutions is seldom addressed. In this paper, we discuss the legacy of colonial collections in Norway through two case studies; Inge Heiberg’s collection of Congo ethnographica in various exhibitions at the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History from the early 1900s to the present; and the Norwegian Kon-Tiki Museum’s initiative to repatriate human remains and other material excavated by Thor Heyerdahl on Rapa Nui in the 1950s. Presenting two cases that have been promoted as attempts at decolonisation – apparent “best practice” scenarios – we ask how the collections of Heiberg and Heyerdahl are used in current research and representations, and discuss whether the exhibiting and repatriation of the collections represent a continuation of, rather than break from colonial museum practice. We argue that attempts to revise current exhibition practices and research agendas prove consistently difficult. We conclude that in their very different ways, the cases illustrate that museums are effectively trapped in their collections. Heyerdahl and Heiberg still have the privilege of being curators of their collections.