Who cares?: The material heritage of British missions in Africa and the Pacific, and its future

Lead Research Organisation: University of East Anglia
Department Name: Art History and World Art Studies

Abstract

Britain was one of the most significant sources of missionaries to Africa and the Pacific during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While histories of missionary activity are matters of ongoing importance in these now strongly Christian parts of the world, attitudes to Christianity in Britain, and its history of missionary activity are increasingly ambivalent. However, a great deal of material heritage associated with early missionary encounters remains in Britain, where it is widely neglected. This material includes:

* items collected as evidence of pre-Christian religious practices, many of which are now regarded as rare and major works of art
* gifts received by missionaries from local people
* the personal possessions and portraits of famous missionaries
* relics of the ships used by missionaries to reach their destinations
* material, such as collecting boxes, that were used to appeal to supporters in Britain

This project aims to create a conversation between academics, museum curators and representatives of missionary societies, as well as heritage organizations in Africa and the Pacific to establish who cares about this heritage in the present, and who should care for it in the future.

Three workshops will be held during 2012 at the National Museum of Scotland, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich. The project is a partnership between researchers at these three organizations, as well as the Museum Ethnographers Group, a charity that exists to 'Make connections through world collections'. As a recognized 'Subject-Specialist Network' in the museum's sector, the Museum Ethnographers Group will use its connections to influence museum practice in relation to the cataloging, conservation and exhibition of collections of missionary material.

Each of the workshops will include a presentation by an international academic researcher, as well as by knowledgeable museum curators and missionary organisations about their experiences of working with missionary material. These presentations will be the starting points for a series of structured conversations about the future of collections of missionary material in Britain, and the best ways of making them available for study by international researchers, as well as those in Britain and overseas for whom they have a significant value as items of heritage.

The National Museum of Scotland will be opening an exhibition on the life and legacy of the famous missionary David Livingstone towards the end of this project, organized in collaboration with colleagues from Museums of Malawi in Africa. We expect the opening of this exhibition to be an important moment when the conversations that begin during these workshops can receive a more public airing in the media.

Planned Impact

Both the Principal Investigator and the Co-Investigator have experience of working on projects that have achieved a considerable range of impacts. With experience in academic research as well as curatorial practice, we are keenly aware of the potential of the insights and perspectives developed during research to benefit practitioners in a range of sectors. The workshops and outcomes will be of direct benefit to a range of researchers in mission studies, museum studies and Pacific and African studies, notably art historians, historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and museum curators.

By working in partnership with the Museum Ethnographers Group (MEG) we will engage with those with curatorial responsibility for missionary collections in a range of UK institutions, from national and university museums, to local authority and small independent museums. We will assist them to make effective use of these collections, which should generate new research and exhibitions with the potential to generate significant economic impact in a range of locales.

By including policy makers from British and international bodies we hope to draw attention to the significance of missionary heritage as a unique resource in Britain, the presence of which deserves to be supported. Failure to recognise the potential significance of such material allowed the disposal of the George Brown collection in 1985, because it was not understood as a significant part of British heritage, and its acquisition by the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan.

By engaging with and involving representatives of missionary societies with ongoing responsibilities for the stewardship of material heritage that has accumulated during their long histories, we hope to provide significant assistance to administrative officers in the development of effective policies for the management of these resources, so that they can be effectively curated and made effective use of. By involving representatives of heritage organisations in Africa and the Pacific, we hope to develop international bonds of collaboration and share expertise with colleagues working in these parts of the world.

We also plan to engage the wider public through targeted media engagements, timed to coincide with the opening of the David Livingstone exhibition in Edinburgh. We hope to initiate a wider conversation about the significance of the material heritage of British missions for British, diasporic and overseas communities.

As well as short-term impacts generated during the project, the range of planned engagements has the potential to generate a significant economic impact over the medium to longer term by drawing attention to the unique and significant potential of an under-appreciated and under-utilised resource in the United Kingdom and by generating a range of new activity around this.

We expect to increase the effectiveness of museums as public services through the ways in which they document, conserve and display collections. We also hope to influence the activity of heritage policy bodies, and assist them in the appropriate targeting of resources, by recognising the various constituencies with a stake in Britain's missionary heritage.

By engaging the wider public in a conversation about the historic significance of the missionary endeavour, and its material heritage in Britain, we hope to contribute to the mutual understanding of different groups of people within Britain, as well as a better appreciation of Britain's historic role in shaping the modern world.
 
Title David Livingstone. The Man - exhibition, Chichiri Museum, Malawi 
Description 'David Livingstone. The Man' exhibition opened in Chichiri Museum, Blantyre, Malawi on 17 September. Tamanda Mtotha was invited to one of the workshops funded by the AHRC Networking grant and her visit resulted in a collaboration between Tamanda Mtotha of Chichiri Museum and Sarah Worden, National Museum of Scotland. The exhibition itself was one of the key outcomes of NMS 'Museums as Agents of Change Project with Museums of Malawi funded by the Scottish Government. 
Type Of Art Artistic/Creative Exhibition 
Year Produced 2013 
Impact This exhibition focused on Livingstone as a man who became part of Malawi history - something that was strongly conveyed by participants in the workshops organised during the Networking Grant. While the exhibition was funded by the National Museum of Scotland, the collaboration began during the Networking Grant. The exhibition reached a wide Malawian audience. 
 
Description The project aimed to set up a network of academics, museum curators, representatives of missionary organisations and heritage groups, and African and Pacific stakeholders to discuss the stewardship of the material heritage resulting from two centuries of British missionary work in Africa and the Pacific. During three workshops we worked with a core group of participants and asked the question 'Who cares?' for and about this material in the present, and who is likely to care most about it in the future. The variety of perspectives that came up during the keynote presentations and discussions were eye-opening. What became clear from all the discussions over the three workshops is that a great many people do care. Christians in Africa and the Pacific may care because material was associated with significant events in their history. Indigenous activists may care because some missionary collected material offers the best opportunity for reconstructing pre-Christian practices. Agnostic British people may care because they feel that this material represents a history of which they are faintly embarrassed. The issue seems not to be whether anyone cares, but whether the ways in which people care makes it difficult for them to find a way of talking to and understanding each other. We concluded that the way forward was to highlight the potential of missionary heritage to become a focus for reflections on shared histories by people from different parts of the world, with the attendant ambiguities and complexities that this involves. This project was timely because museums across the UK as well as elsewhere in Europe are reconsidering the significance of 'ethnographic' collections as 'world cultures'. The latter rubric may diminish the historical significance of the materials in question. Tangible outcomes of the project have been: three publications, an exhibition in Malawi, a future new display in Fiji, but, most of all, a network of specialists have been formed who have already organised an international conference and look forward to continuing collaboration.
Exploitation Route A very successful network of specialists was formed. Not only did the network meet during the workshops and everyone contributed to a publication, smaller collaborations have been formed between network participants. One important side project has been an exhibition in Malawi, another has been the planning of a new missionary display in the Fiji museum in Fiji. Many of the network participants participated in a larger scale conference held in Cambridge in September 2014, which was organised by the core team that organised the workshops for the networking grant. There, network participants were able to widen their network and some spin-off projects have been started. In South Africa, people are currently preparing a publication. The P-I, together with people who participated in the network workshops, is currently putting together a proposal for a larger project. These are actual and tangible projects. However, participants working in museums have reported that they now think differently about missionary collections. This might indirectly influence the way curators deal with these collections in the future.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
URL http://www.museumethnographersgroup.org.uk/en/projects/330-ahrc-network.html
 
Description The main idea was to form a network of various stakeholders: academics, museum curators, representatives of heritage and missionary societies and African and Pacific stakeholders. Through the relatively open structure of the workshops, we encouraged interactions between these different parties. This means that research findings have been and will be used in a variety of ways. One publication was written for a clear academic audience, one for a museum curators audience and one for the general public. Discussions during the workshop led to an exhibition in Malawi, to a new display in the Fiji Museum and led to an international conference on missionary heritage. Discussions also resulted in a funding application for a larger research project, which was unsuccessful but was the basis for an even stronger and wider network of colleagues with shared interests. These are actual and tangible projects. However, curators of smaller museums in the UK who look after missionary collections have reported that they now think differently about these collections and acknowledge the complexity of their nature. Indirectly, this will influence the way curators deal with these collections in the future.
First Year Of Impact 2012
Sector Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural,Economic
 
Description Conference and Travel grant - Mc Donald Institute for Archaeological Research
Amount £4,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Cambridge 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2014 
End 09/2014
 
Description Studentship
Amount £17,626 (GBP)
Organisation University of East Anglia 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 10/2013 
End 10/2016
 
Description Conference: Missionaries, Materials and the Making of the Modern World 
Organisation University of Cambridge
Department Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Karen Jacobs and Chris Wingfield of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, co-organised a major conference on missionary heritage. We received funding from the Sainsbury Research Unit, and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the MacDonald Institute, University of Cambridge. While we initially had planned to only organise a small conference, we were overwhelmed by the wealth of reactions after we put out a call for papers. We selected 48 papers from international speakers (from Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, etc.).
Collaborator Contribution Both Karen Jacobs and Chris Wingfield gave papers, chaired sessions and generally organised the event, which had several keynote speakers and was considered a successful event by participants. Both Jacobs and Wingfield elaborated their networks.
Impact A review of the conference was published in the journal Material Religion by Carmen Tomfohrde (2015, volume 11, issue 1, pp. 131-134). The network of specialists was broadened. While the initial networking grant focused on Africa and the Pacific, we now liaised with specialists working on missionary heritage in Asia and Europe too. This conference and collaboration was not only multi-regional but also multi-disciplinary as specialists in religion studies, anthropology, archaeology, material culture studies and area studies all came together.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Project Partnership 
Organisation Museum Ethnographers Group
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Three workshops were held during the course of the project. In order to develop and sustain a conversation, we set out to establish a core group of around fifteen participants who would represent the range of interested parties in Britain, to be supplemented by international speakers at each workshop. The Museum Ethnographers Group was well represented since, as a project partner, five places were reserved for MEG members, and expressions of interest came from a range of UK museums.
Collaborator Contribution As a project partner, the Museum Ethnographers Group hosted a webpage for the project.
Impact Webpage Publication
Start Year 2012
 
Description Project Partnership 
Organisation National Museums Scotland
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution We organised one out of three workshops in the National Museum of Scotland. We coincided the workshop with the exhibition 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?', which meant that we could share the costs of bringing over and hosting African curators and academics, such as Friday Mufuzi and Tamanda Mtotha (from Zambia and Malawi). Both presented earlier during the exhibition opening and consulted the museum with regards to their collections. The workshop discussions also initiated further collaboration between the Edinburgh museum and the Malawi museum. All parties involved were very pleased with the collaboration.
Collaborator Contribution See above about sharing costs. This partnership enabled us to bring two people over rather than one, which considerably enriched the workshop discussions, providing different points of view. Both gave keynote presentations during the workshop. Chantal Knowles, at the time Principal Curator at the Museum, took on an active role in the project by helping us to organise the workshop, by becoming co-editor of one of the publications and being an active participant in all the workshops.
Impact - Publication: edited book 'Trophies, Relics and Curios? Material heritage from British missions in Africa and the Pacific, and its future', Leiden: Sidestone Press (forthcoming). - Exhibition at Malawi Museum
Start Year 2012
 
Description Project Partnership 
Organisation University of Cambridge
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Chris Wingfield, the Co-I on the project, moved to Cambridge and this instigated the collaboration. We held one of the three workshops in Cambridge. We invited Ben Wate from the Solomon Islands as a keynote speaker to this workshop and he later consulted the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology about their Solomon Islands collections.
Collaborator Contribution Cambridge hosted the workshop and helped out with organisational work. After the project finished, the collaboration was continued and together we organised a large-scale international conference entitled 'Missionaries, Materials and the Making of the Modern World. An international interdisciplinary conference organised by the Missionary Material Heritage Network', 15 - 17 September 2014, at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge.
Impact - Conference: 'Missionaries, Materials and the Making of the Modern World. An international interdisciplinary conference organised by the Missionary Material Heritage Network', 15 - 17 September 2014, at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. - Workshop as part of the networking grant, 22-23 March 2013. - Publication: [in press] Trophies, Relics and Curios? Material heritage from British Missions in Africa and the Pacific. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
Start Year 2013
 
Description Research Session at Conference European Society for Oceanists 2015 
Organisation National Museum of World Cultures
Department National Museum of Ethnology
Country Netherlands 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution I approached colleagues at the National Museum of World Cultures in Leiden and the University of Groningen with the question to organise a session entitled 'Encounters, identities and objects: missionisation in the Pacific" during the large-scale Conference of the European Society for Oceanists in Brussels. Our call for papers attracted so many speakers that we had to divide the session over two days.
Collaborator Contribution All three of us gave papers and chaired sessions. we all extended our networks and discussed ideas for the future.
Impact Particularly our networks were extended. We discussed ideas for the future and I developed a further funding application with the colleague in Leiden.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Research Session at Conference European Society for Oceanists 2015 
Organisation University of Groningen
Country Netherlands 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution I approached colleagues at the National Museum of World Cultures in Leiden and the University of Groningen with the question to organise a session entitled 'Encounters, identities and objects: missionisation in the Pacific" during the large-scale Conference of the European Society for Oceanists in Brussels. Our call for papers attracted so many speakers that we had to divide the session over two days.
Collaborator Contribution All three of us gave papers and chaired sessions. we all extended our networks and discussed ideas for the future.
Impact Particularly our networks were extended. We discussed ideas for the future and I developed a further funding application with the colleague in Leiden.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Conference paper - Jacobs 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Jacobs presented her research on Father Damien at the Pacific Arts Association-Europe conference in Stuttgart, Germany. The paper entitled 'Saint Damien and missionary work in nineteenth century Hawai'i in a Belgian Museum' addressed the conference theme focusing on the relationships between Europe and the Pacific and was well received.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description David Livingstone. The Man - exhibition, Chichiri Museum, Blantrye, Malawi 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact 'David Livingstone. The Man' exhibition opened in Chichiri Museum, Blantrye, Malawi on 17 September. Tamanda Mtotha was invited to one of the workshops funded by the AHRC Networking grant and her visit resulted in a collaboration between Tamanda Mtotha of Chichiri Museum and Sarah Worden, National Museum of Scotland. The exhibition itself was one of the key outcomes of NMS 'Museums as Agents of Change Project with Museums of Malawi funded by Scottish Government.

After the first workshop in Edinburgh, to which Tamanda Mtotha was invited, we had a meeting with NMS staff to discuss the exhibition idea, which was then taken forward by NMS and Malawi Museum staff.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Listserv: Missionaries, Materials and Heritage 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact This listserv was set up by the network to share findings, archival and museum documents or to just draw people's attention to something relevant that was found in the news or any other media. The listserv is a great reflection of the network, but is open to anyone who is interested and the number of people outside of the research network signing up is growing. As such, it is a way of disseminating and communicating research findings to an academic and non-academic audience.

Even though it was mainly set up for other academics, the listserv has attracted interest from outside academia and sparked broader and interesting discussions than anticipated.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Workshop 1 - Africa focus 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Participants in your research and patient groups
Results and Impact We organised three workshops. During each workshop it was important to invite a wide interest group. The involvement of curators from a range of institutions enabled them to make more effective use of their collections of missionary material. By including policy makers we drew attention to the significance of missionary heritage as a unique resource in Britain, the presence of which deserves to be recognised and supported both nationally and internationally. Failure to recognise the potential significance of such material enabled the sale of the collection of the Methodist missionary George Brown in 1985, and its acquisition by the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan. We invited representatives of the main UK-based missionary societies, who contributed insightfully to the discussions. The first workshop held in Edinburgh on 27-28 November 2012, was timed to coincide with the opening of the Dr Livingstone, I Presume? exhibition,4 and had a focus on Africa. The keynote speakers during the workshop were Sarah Worden, of National Museums Scotland, who curated the Livingstone exhibition, and Friday Mufuzi, Curator of History at the Livingstone Museum in Zambia. Tamanda Mthotha, who was in Edinburgh at the time as part of a partnership that has been established between National Museums of Malawi and National Museums Scotland, also attended the workshop and contributed to the discussions.

The workshop informed the following workshop in Cambridge and led to the general outputs and side-projects reported elsewhere. This particular workshop also led to an exhibition in Malawi, reported separately.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
 
Description Workshop 2 - UK/Collections focus 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Participants in your research and patient groups
Results and Impact See general information on the workshops in 'Workshop 1'. The second workshop, held in Cambridge on 22-23 March 2013, had a focus on Britain, and the significance and fate of material deriving from the history of missionary encounters. The keynote speakers were David Maxwell (Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Cambridge), Rosemary Seton (Research Associate and former Head of Archives and Special Collections at SOAS), and the Reverend Ben Wate (of the Anglican Church of Melanesia). Maxwell's presentation made it clear that much of the material that was collected and transported to Britain was the result of a common enterprise, rather than one that was entirely directed by the interests of European missionaries. Seton spoke about her experience of developing Mundus, the online reference tool for locating missionary archives. Unsurprisingly, her talk led to a discussion about the possibility of developing, as a possible outcome of the networking project, something similar that would function as a directory to missionary-related artefacts in museum collections This developed into an interesting discussion about ownership and the ethics of making such material public. Who, for example, decides whether or not it is appropriate to publish the large missionary photographic collections, much of which might dwell on pre-Christian practices, with which Christians in Africa and the Pacific today might not want to be associated? Wate pointed out that even today many children in the Solomon Islands are named after early British missionaries. He also highlighted the continuing spiritual potency associated with the relics of John Patteson, the first Anglican Bishop of Melanesia, martyred at Nukapu in the Solomon Islands in 1871, which are kept in the Anglican Cathedral at Honiara. It was clear that these relics were more evocative for many Solomon Islanders than the ethnographic materials collected by other missionaries that are now in European museums.

The workshop informed the third workshop and led to the general outputs and side projects reported elsewhere.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Workshop 3 - Pacific focus 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Participants in your research and patient groups
Results and Impact The final workshop, held in Norwich on 10-11 June 2013, had a focus on the Pacific and was timed to coincide with the opening of the Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and a related symposium on Fijian art. Keynote presentations were given by Carol Mayer (Head of the Curatorial Department at the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver), John Barker (Professor in Socio-Cultural Anthropology at the University of British Columbia), and Sagale Buadromo (Director of the Fiji Museum).

Each workshop led to the general outputs and side projects reported elsewhere. This particular workshop led to a discussion about the missionary display in the Fiji Museum which will be changed in the future and will have a societal and economic impact.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013