ABSTRACT
The last chapter considers colonial objects not as traces of a historical past, but as tangible presences in today’s museums. As contemporary museum pieces, they raise urgent questions about belonging, possession, and representation; about lingering colonial structures and the prospects of decolonization. Building on postcolonial and decolonial critiques, as framed by Édouard Glissant, James Clifford, and Walter Mignolo, the chapter concludes by proposing that colonial objects, with their long-standing involvement in the entangled histories of museums and colonialism, could play an important role in the re-envisioning and decolonization of museums in the Western world.
