Colonial Legacies in Exhibiting Ethnographic Collections and Decolonising Practices A Case Study from Indonesia

Abstract

This article focuses on the legacies of the Dutch colonial empire expressed in exhibiting cultural representations of Indonesia. Representations of Indonesian culture were first created through ethnographic collections and museum exhibitions during Dutch colonisation. Then, representations and museum collections were transferred and adapted in the postcolonial era. The article argues that cultural representations, as colonial legacies, were reproduced by the central government of Indonesia to serve political and economic agendas. However, decolonising practices occurred in public spaces, due to the efforts of local communities and some museums in Netherlands. Literature review is a major methodology of this article.