Decolonising the Museum: Digital Repatriation of the Gaidinliu Collection from the UK to India (DiMuse)

1929年至1932年，那牙姑娘盖丁柳在今天的印度地区阿萨姆邦、那加兰和曼尼普尔煽动反抗英国殖民统治的起义。当最终被捕时，盖丁柳被监禁，英国人没收了她的笔记本、裹尸布、手镯和护身符以及其他仪式物品。这些物品被捐赠给牛津的皮特·里弗斯博物馆，现在被称为盖丁柳收藏。自1993年去世以来，盖丁柳已成为现代印度的著名人物，也是印度独立的重要象征。因此，Gaidinliu收藏品在英国博物馆的继续存在提出了重要和及时的问题，即是否应该以及如何将收藏品归还给被带走的土著人民，当英国博物馆讨论将他们的展览去殖民化时，这些问题尤其相关。DiMuse项目通过批判性地调查一种将物品归还的方式，填补了研究文献中的空白。（一个“数字博物馆”），并探讨如何在“回归”后传播和访问盖丁柳收藏品。以前的工作主要集中在回馈行为上，没有考虑印度东北部，这是一个拥有丰富而富有挑战性的英国殖民主义历史的地区，现在才开始被理解。北美和大洋洲的其他土著社区也曾探索过遣返，但这些社区并不像泽良荣纳加那样资源匮乏。这个项目为相对偏远的高原地区的土著社区提供了一个独特的机会，让他们重新接触过去的物品。DiMuse调查了六个主要的研究问题。通过创建一个“运动中的展览”，它要求：1。作为民族志方法，“数字回归”能告诉我们博物馆作为分配机构而不是保存地点的作用吗？2.博物馆空间外的物品如何与人互动，人们又如何在这些相遇中找到（多重）意义？3.时间和距离如何影响集体记忆的叙事和政治？4.当数字收藏品被送回“家中”并通过社交媒体和其他形式的在线传播传播时，会引发哪些反应？5.数字博物馆能告诉我们什么关于在线互动？6.“数字回归”是博物馆非殖民化的有效策略吗？西方博物馆中土著收藏品的道德未来是什么？与印度东北部的泽良荣纳加斯的合作以及一系列民族志方法--口头、视觉和分析--是该项目的核心。在哈夫隆举办的一个社区策划的研讨会将重点关注盖丁柳收藏品的数字图像和对其“遣返”的反应。在古瓦哈蒂（阿萨姆邦）的一个展览将在讲习班的基础上扩大其范围，包括盖丁柳作为自由战士和国家人物的形象。最后一个展览将在牛津举办，它将整合这两个活动，并首次与实物收藏进行互动。通过让多个利益相关者参与进来，DiMuse将展示Gaidinliu收藏需要如何重新思考，重新构建和挑战。它还将开启有关数字回归、所有权和知识生产的更大问题。物体是如何进化的，因为对它们的解释和优先级会改变，因为它们在不同的时间以不同的方式影响人们？该项目如何为关于保护土著传统知识和促进土著知识产权的国际辩论提供信息？调查结果将通过数字媒体广泛传播，包括网站，WhatsApp，视频，电影，图形小说以及各种流行和学术出版物，以达到土著社区以及印度和英国博物馆和教育机构的工作人员和学生。

Between 1929 and 1932, Gaidinliu, a Zeliangrong Naga girl, instigated an uprising against British colonial rule in the present-day Indian regions of Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur. When eventually captured, Gaidinliu was imprisoned and the British confiscated her notebooks, body cloths, bracelets and amulets, and other ritual objects. These objects were donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and are now known as the Gaidinliu collection. Since her death in 1993, Gaidinliu has become a celebrated figure in modern India and a prominent symbol of Indian independence. The continued existence of the Gaidinliu collection in a UK museum thus raises important and timely questions about whether and how the objects in the collection should be returned to the Indigenous peoples from whom they were taken, questions that are especially pertinent as UK museums discuss decolonising their exhibitions.The DiMuse project addresses a gap in the research literature by critically investigating one way of repatriating objects (a 'digital museum') and exploring how the Gaidinliu collection may be circulated and accessed after its 'return'. Previous work has focused mainly on acts of giving back and has not considered the Northeast of India, a region with a rich and challenging history of encounters with British colonialism that is only now beginning to be understood. Repatriation has been explored in other Indigenous communities in North America and Oceania but these communities are not resource-poor, unlike the Zeliangrong Nagas. This project provides a unique opportunity for Indigenous communities in a relatively remote highland area to re-engage with objects from their past.DiMuse investigates six main research questions. By creating an 'exhibition in motion', it asks:1. What can 'digital repatriation', as ethnographic method, tell us about the role museums play as distributive institutions rather than conserving locations?2. How do objects interact with people outside the museum space and how do people in turn find (multiple) meanings in these encounters?3. How do time and distance affect the narratives and the politics of collective memory?4. What responses are triggered when the digital collection is returned 'home' and is circulated via social media and other forms of online dissemination?5. What can the digital museum tell us about online interactions?6. Is 'digital repatriation' an effective strategy for decolonising the museum, and what are the ethical futures of Indigenous collections in Western museums?Partnership with Zeliangrong Nagas in Northeast India and a range of ethnographic methods - oral, visual and analytical - are central to the project. A community-curated workshop in Haflong will focus on digital images of objects in the Gaidinliu collection and responses to its 'repatriation'. An exhibition in Guwahati (Assam) will build on the workshop and extend its remit by including images of Gaidinliu as a freedom fighter and national figure. A final exhibition, in Oxford, will consolidate the two events and, for the first time, engage with the physical collection.By involving multiple stakeholders, DiMuse will show how the Gaidinliu collection needs to be rethought, reframed, and challenged. It will also open up larger questions regarding digital repatriation, ownership, and knowledge production. How do objects evolve both because interpretations of, and priorities about, them alter, and because they affect people in different ways at different times? How can the project inform international debates about Indigenous traditional knowledge protection and the promotion of Indigenous intellectual property rights? Findings will be disseminated widely through digital media, including a website, WhatsApp, video, film, a graphic novel, and various popular and academic publications, to reach both Indigenous communities and staff and students in museums and educational institutions in India and UK.