Defining decolonisation in Bolivian museums: from rhetoric and practices to conceptualisation

Decolonisation in museums, as a concept and a transformative process (Tuck and Yang, 2012), requires the creation of norms and practices that may undermine the institution's original purpose. As a multi-ethnic nation, Bolivia continues to struggle with its colonial past and contemporary internal colonisation. After decades of grass-roots activism for cultural rights (Cusicanqui, 1986), Bolivia became a Plurinational State engaged in decolonisation in 2009. State legislature such as the recognition of Indigenous languages, cultural practices, and anti-discrimination laws are reshaping institutions, social relations and mentalities across Bolivia, including museums.
Even though there is no State-led plan to decolonise museums, the fertile ground for work and change particular to Latin American museums (Pinochet Cobos, 2016) has motivated several decolonial projects. Though museums are still perceived as rigid institutions, workers question and transform their roles constantly. In Bolivia, examples include: curating exhibits with a decolonial perspective in the Museum of National Art; the appointment of an Indigenous Aymara anthropologist as director of the Museum of Ethnography and Folklore; and the mixed-management of the Tiwanaku heritage site and museum with the local Aymara community. I have chosen to study these three museums because they are State-run institutions closely influenced by the political agenda and uniquely engaged in decolonial practices in relation to curatorship, recruitment and management. My research will:
- Generate new understanding of how and by what means museums actively involved in these processes have integrated a decolonial agenda and where and how Indigenous knowledge has been introduced as a cognitive and narrative tool.
- Undertake a detailed examination of the motivations and strategies utilised by museum workers to facilitate or impede decolonial practices, and how they perceive their roles and the museums' in the decolonisation process.
- Generate new insights for museum workers seeking to implement new perspectives in traditional spaces, particularly in reconfiguring the power relations between cultural actors of different backgrounds.
- Explore the means in which decolonisation, as a context-specific concept and needs-based practice, can become a driver for social change.
- Contribute, through the original findings and sociocultural particularities around Bolivia's postcolonial museums, to produce new perspectives in academic knowledge and conceptualisation of museum work in Bolivia and postcolonial societies.
Year 1 will be dedicated to a literature review on museum, cultural and Latin American Studies, acquiring methodological tools for action-based research initiatives through case studies, and contacting the museums. Year 2 will comprise of ten months of ethnographic and action-based research in Bolivia. I will analyse the museums' exhibition narratives, texts, public programmes, accession priorities and collection taxonomies. I will interview museum workers to understand their backgrounds, perceptions and subjectivities. The action-based research will consist in participative workshops with workers, drawing on their decolonial practices, values and knowledge in order to conceptualise these practices, and collectively build tools appropriate to their values and goals. This will allow me to further understand the dynamics in place. Year 3 will consist of an evaluation with museum workers regarding the implementation of the new tools, data analysis and writing.