Digitizing migration heritage: A case study of a minority museum
MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research. 2010;27(50)
Journal Title: MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research
ISSN: 1901-9726 (Online)
Publisher: Sammenslutningen af Medieforskere i Danmark (SMID)
LCC Subject Category: Language and Literature: Philology. Linguistics: Communication. Mass media
Country of publisher: Denmark
Language of fulltext: English, Danish
Full-text formats available: PDF
AUTHORS
Randi Marselis
(Institute of Literature, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Southern Denmark)
EDITORIAL INFORMATION
Time From Submission to Publication: 25 weeks
Abstract | Full Text
Museums are increasingly digitizing their collections and making them available to the public on-line. Creating such digital resources may become means for social inclusion. For museums that acknowledge migration history and cultures of ethnic minority groups as important subjects in multiethnic societies, digitization brings new possibilities for reaching source communities. This article describes Web projects conducted at Museum Maluku in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The article focuses on the museum’s experiences with cross-institutional Web projects, since digitization of the museum’s collection was initiated through collaboration with major national heritage institutions. The article also discusses how source communities through digital participation can become involved in building cultural heritage. Based on the case study of the Museum Maluku, it is argued that in order to design an appropriate mode of user participation as well as a sense of ownership it is crucial to take memory politics of source communities into account.