Supporting Decolonisation in Museums: Focus on Ukraine

Supporting Decolonisation in Museums: Focus on Ukraine is the result of an international partnership project, initiated by the Ukrainian Institute and developed in collaboration with ICOM UK and ICOM Ukraine and the Museums Association, supported by the British Council. 

ICOM UK played a major role in developing and delivering the new Guide by acting as the grant administrator and project coordinator. In addition, members of our Board contributed towards testing earlier versions while our Co-chair, Maria Blyzinsky, was the lead writer. Almost three years in the making and with around 100 participants, it is truly a work of co-creation and international collaboration.

It is written for those who may have limited knowledge about Ukraine but who champion diversity and inclusivity. The purpose is to support museum and cultural heritage professionals globally to include Ukraine in their decolonisation practice.

As well as offering new perspectives on the rich cultural heritage of this major European country, reliable information equips readers with the confidence to challenge harmful colonial narratives, negative stereotyping, misrepresentation and mislabelling of Ukraine and its cultural heritage.

By acknowledging the complex and often difficult processes involved in unlearning and relearning the past, the Guide positions Ukraine in solidarity with a global network of decolonisation struggles. 

The Guide has been developed by experts and practitioners from Ukraine and internationally to bring together a range of perspectives and to represent a ‘snapshot in time’ on this decolonisation journey.

Case studies and examples of good practice have been drawn from a variety of fields – including academia, archives, galleries and libraries as well as museums – to show how learning can be shared across different types of memory institution.

We hope that this publication will also be relevant to other global contexts and different colonial settings, and that it will inspire the development of more guides to explain the rich and diverse cultural heritage of other peoples and nations. 

The Guide is available to download for free from all the project partners’ websites.