Titel

Between Tribes and Ancestors: A Case Study of Reconciliation and Cooperation with the Seediq Community

Abstract

The Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm manages about 300 objects form Taiwan, almost all of which were collected from indigenous communities between 1907 and 1918.  After a century of cultural supression and neglect, some of these indigenous groups are reconciling with the past and working towards cultural revitalization through the help of museum collections.  This talk presents a practical case study of how the museum has cooperated with members of the Seediq community through experimental methdologies that endeavour towards decoloniality in museum work.  

The exhibition We are Seediq is available at the Ethnographic museum until january 2025. 

Visit the museum website

Bio

Michel Lee is a Curator working with the China, Korea, and Sven Hedin collections at the National Museums of World Culture, Sweden.  He received his first degree in Anthropology at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. and later worked in the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.  Lee received his MA in the History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.  Upon completion, he became the Curator and, later, acting Director at the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath, U.K.  He served as the Museum Director of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, National Museums of World Culture, Sweden from 2013 until 2015.  Michel Lee is currently working with projects that reconnect the descendants of source communities with museum collections.