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

博物馆的非殖民化，作为一个概念和一个变革过程（塔克和杨，2012年），需要建立可能破坏该机构最初目的的规范和做法。作为一个多民族国家，玻利维亚继续与其过去的殖民地和当代的国内殖民主义作斗争。经过几十年的基层文化权利运动（Cusicanqui，1986年），玻利维亚于2009年成为一个多民族国家，实行非殖民化。国家立法，如承认土著语言、文化习俗和反歧视法律，正在重塑整个玻利维亚的机构、社会关系和心态，包括博物馆。尽管没有国家主导的博物馆非殖民化计划，但拉丁美洲博物馆特有的工作和变革的肥沃土壤（皮诺切特·科沃斯，2016）激发了几个非殖民化项目。虽然博物馆仍然被视为僵化的机构，但工作人员不断质疑和转变他们的角色。在玻利维亚，这方面的例子包括：国家艺术博物馆从非殖民地的角度举办展览;任命一名土著艾马拉人人类学家担任民族志和民俗博物馆馆长; Tiwanaku遗址和博物馆与当地艾马拉人社区混合管理。我之所以选择研究这三个博物馆，是因为它们是受政治议程密切影响的国营机构，在馆长、招聘和管理方面独特地采用非殖民地做法。我的研究将：-产生新的理解如何以及通过什么手段博物馆积极参与这些进程已经整合了非殖民议程，以及在哪里以及如何土著知识已被引入作为认知和叙事工具。详细研究博物馆工作人员促进或阻碍非殖民化实践的动机和策略，以及他们如何看待自己的角色和博物馆在非殖民化进程中的作用。为寻求在传统空间中实施新视角的博物馆工作者提供新的见解，特别是在重新配置不同背景的文化行为者之间的权力关系方面。- 探讨非殖民化作为一个针对具体情况的概念和基于需求的做法，如何能够成为社会变革的驱动力。- 通过对玻利维亚后殖民时期博物馆的原始发现和社会文化特点的研究，为玻利维亚和后殖民时期社会的学术知识和博物馆工作的概念化提供新的视角。第一年将致力于对博物馆、文化和拉丁美洲研究进行文献综述，通过案例研究获得基于行动的研究举措的方法工具，并与博物馆联系。第二年将在玻利维亚进行为期十个月的人种学和基于行动的研究。我将分析博物馆的展览叙述，文本，公共计划，加入优先事项和收藏分类。我将采访博物馆工作人员，了解他们的背景，看法和主观性。以行动为基础的研究将包括与工人的参与性讲习班，借鉴他们的非殖民化做法，价值观和知识，以便将这些做法概念化，并集体建立适合他们的价值观和目标的工具。这将使我能够进一步了解当地的动态。第三年将与博物馆工作人员一起评估新工具的实施，数据分析和写作。

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.