ISO Stories about the Future of Voluntary Repatriation, Restitution, and Reparations

Photo by Peter Pryharski on Unsplash Jump to beginning of article Share this article From the digital desk of Elizabeth Merritt, Vice President, Strategic Foresight and Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums: Museum people are natural storytellers, attuned to making sense of the world through words, images, and objects. This makes it a joy to teach foresight in our sector: Museum people “get” why it is so important and powerful to create narratives about potential futures. These stories can provide hope or inspiration, and in some cases even solutions to challenges that stand in the way of creating the future we want to be true. Now I’m in search of stories to provide hope, inspiration, and solutions for the next phase of museums’ relations with descendants of communities deeply entwined with, and often harmed by, museum practice. (This project is framed around four specific descendant groups: people harmed by violence and theft in the Nazi era; communities in sub-Saharan Africa; Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific and the Americas; and descendants of people who were enslaved in what is now the USA.) Can stories, mere words on digital paper, have power over such a big issue? Yes, they can,...