ABSTRACT
In 2000, the author was approached to the Manchester Museum by a couple of local health workers. They came to see him on behalf of a group of Somali refugee women. The Somali women brought that outside reality into the museum. The Somali women challenged the museum's edifice of knowledge and power visible, a challenge that goes right to the heart of the museum project, contesting the interpretation of collections and changing people perception of the purpose of the museum's participatory practice. Tuhiwai Smith speaks of the Maori motivation behind sharing oral histories with museums, which may be at odds with the museum's purpose. The Challenging Histories' project is a good example of collaborative academic research drawn from a wider range of academic specialisms. Such collaborative reflexivity must include an awareness and development of new tools of analysis on such areas as social justice, power, participation and conflict, as well as new forms of participatory communication.
