ABSTRACT
Museums are in the business of preserving, exhibiting and interpreting heritage and are thus in a powerful position to encapsulate and promote official and trusted cultural narratives. They are seen as official because museums claim to represent states, nations and/or communities, and are trusted because visitors tend to assume that the narratives offered by museums are well researched and objective. These official and trusted cultural narratives, however, are rarely absolute, unchanging or unbiased. On the contrary, what is considered ‘cultural heritage’ is constantly (re)constructed and (re)negotiated because mutable practical, professional, cultural and political reasons dictate what kind of cultural heritage is visible, or not, and to whom. Second, we cannot ignore the fact that museums are the product of the actions of multiple stakeholders who generally have different interests and motivations. As a result, the museological construction of heritage is to a large degree shaped by these stakeholders and their perceptions about what constitutes ‘their’ heritage worth preserving and exhibiting. Finally, heritage is bound to the complexities of place and time and therefore the elements that structure it change according to geographical and temporal coordinates. As these coordinates shift, so does the emphasis placed on certain aspects of heritage.
