Telling ‘another’ Story: Western Museums and the Creation of Non-western Identities

Contemporary museums are ‘among the most successful leisure venues in the world’ (Falk 2009: 21). At the same time, they are cultural forums, where people’s [hi]stories (understood both as reconstructed pasts and events) can be discussed in informal and public ways, and where personal memories are materialised and shared, through collections (Pearce 1998). This is particularly true when museum exhibitions are concerned with local communities and their history; indeed, museums and their collections become a remarkable resource for local communities, which may strengthen their sense of place, shared history, and identity.