Ethical Issues from Decolonial Practices in Knowledge Organization: The Case of Indigenous Collections in Världskulturmuseet

Abstract

The Museum of World Culture (Världskulturmuseet) has been implementing some decolonial practices in its indigenous collection. Therefore, the museum started migrating its collection to a new platform, and as part of this project, the museum needs to review its knowl­edge organization system, as some problems related to classification and terminology were identified in the current database called Carlotta. The next step is to create a controlled vocabulary specific to the indigenous group, however, dealing with a sensitive collection requires identifying the ethical issues. Then, we question what ethical issues can be raised in organizing and representing Knowl­edge of Indigenous Collections in the Världskulturmuseet? This is a case study that employed an interview and content analysis of the Carlotta database. As a result, we point to the growth of research in the indigenous librarianship field. The museum uses inappropriate and obsolete terms to describe some of the collection objects. We conclude that indigenous self-determination in cultural institutions can guide the ethical issues related to the creation of a knowl­edge organization system in a museum.