Manchester Museum’s Indigenise Speaker Series returns for 2022

The Indigenise Speaker Series was conceived and is organised by Dr Alexandra P. Alberda, Curator of Indigenous Perspectives at Manchester Museum. It is part of the Indigenising Manchester Museum programme, funded by the John Ellerman Foundation. The Speaker Series aims to bring together Indigenous scholars and projects from around the world in order to learn from and imagine what Indigenous Futures could be for the museum. It also seeks to support different perspectives on museum practice, decolonisation and Indigenisation, and inform organisational development.

This series of talks reframes the model for the ‘Speaker Series’. Talks and guest speakers are a great way to bring new perspectives and ideas into view for organisations and their audiences. They can inspire and inform. But what happens next? Especially when a Speaker Series’ aim is to include marginalised peoples and ideas into mainstream narratives, how do organisers ensure change and empowerment happens?

Curator Alexandra Alberda is determined to shift narratives and empower participants and has organised this public Speaker Series to be paired with internal workshops for museum staff – workshops that respond to calls to action and expertise provided by the speakers.

The Indigenise Speaker Series started in July 2021 and past speakers who have led actions and thinking include Dr Paulette Steeves, Dr Rosalyn LaPier and Shelley Angelie Saggar. The next talk is with Dr Njabulo Chipangura, Manchester Museum’s new Curator of Living Cultures.

Dr Chipangura’s talk, ‘Community Museums in Zimbabwe as an alternative form of representing Living Cultures’, will examine knowledge production in collection practices and exhibitions and the ways in which museum practice in Africa can be decolonised. He will introduce his previous work that will inform future development at Manchester Museum, including research and professional practice.

The talk will take place online on Friday 28 January 2022 from 1-2 pm (GMT) and registration is free.