Reparative Approaches to Philippine Collections at the University of Michigan

Abstract

The University of Michigan’s role in US colonial expansion resulted in the accumulation of one of the largest Philippine cultural and natural history collections in North America. It is time for the university to address its colonial complicity in the formation of these collections by developing decolonial practices so that the institution can provide reciprocal and reparative access to these Philippine collections. In response, the ReConnect/ReCollect project is currently developing and testing relative approaches for culturally responsive and historically minded stewardship of Philippine materials at the university. Our overall goal is to create both the framework and the corresponding set of practices that will intervene in contemporary scholarship and curation to pursue what constitutes reparative work for Philippine collections. We engage in three interrelated interventions: reparative curation, reparative connections to community and reparative scholarship. Our anticipated outcomes include a full inventory of the university’s Philippine collections, opening our collections for iterative and inclusive community engagement and the creation of a multiplatform toolkit for reparative actions. The first project of its kind for Philippine collections, this work holds far-reaching implications, offering a new vantage point from which to engage scholarly conversations around decolonising collections. Our project builds on recent efforts to decolonise collections, which foreground Indigenous perspectives and community collaboration, consultation and dialogue to construct a model of relationality and shared stewardship.