Whose urn is it anyway? Discussions on decolonisation & repatriation efforts in the cultural heritage sector in Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: Ransick, Kelsey J. S.
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/29737
• topic: Repatriation; Património cultural -- Cultural heritage; Museu -- Museum; Descolonização -- Decolonization; Lusotropicalismo -- Lusotropicalism; Racismo -- Racism; Repatriamento

Recent initiatives and reports, such as the Savoy–Sarr report in France, show some positive response among Western countries to the increasingly frequent calls for repatriating artefacts from museums, often as part of larger decolonisation efforts, although many of these calls still go unanswered. As this movement gains traction, the modern states of former empires and present-day hegemons, including Portugal, will face more legal, cultural, and ideological battles over the objects in their care. Thus, establishing guidelines for handling repatriation requests would be an acknowledgement of the power and importance of culture and increase Portugal’s soft power to make peace with the past and foster stronger international ties. This thesis analyses actors and arguments involved in public decolonisation and repatriation debates and efforts in the Portuguese cultural heritage sector. First, a brief history and contextualisation of decolonisation and repatriation efforts in museums situates Portugal within a larger movement to include previously excluded voices and perspectives. Then, the Portuguese context is specifically examined, considering the legacy of lusotropicalism and the ways Portugal has begun to reckon with its historical role in constructing and perpetuating the idea of race. Recent public debates reveal two outspoken camps in such polarising debates, with a notable absence of in-between voices, including rural and less formally educated Portuguese. Finally, a shared piece of cultural patrimony, the mortal remains of Dom Pedro I of Brazil (IV of Portugal), shows the potential difficulty in determining ownership and dominance in the relationship between empires and their former colonies.