ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I give a broad outline of the field of interactions between Australian museums and Indigenous communities. At the heart of this chapter is a response to the most powerful discourse influencing museums in recent years and the calls for decolonisation. Building upon these ideas, but also noting the limitations and problems associated with this approach, I make an argument for what I refer to as ‘transformative collaborations’ in the Indigenous cultural heritage sector. In contrast to theories of decolonisation that tends to deal with binary oppositions and accentuate political antagonisms, my approach emphasises the relational and processual nature of social reality and the entanglements of history. Generally accepting that museums will likely care for Indigenous cultural heritage in the long-term, source communities have been eager to stress the need for collections to be cared for and managed on new and different terms. There is a deafening call from Indigenous peoples everywhere for transformative forms of stewardship. Drawing upon these ideas, I illustrate how collecting institutions might make transformations by recognising Indigenous agency (current and historical), internalising diverse Indigenous ontologies, and instigating new museological practices.
