Museums face the task of representing the similarities and differences that exist between groups, such as national identities and indigenous and minority voices, material and intangible heritage, and current status and past history. In order to achieve this aim, a complex and not always easily compatible set of interests have to be taken into account, from those of the museum itself, to those of its main audiences, sources of support, and the groups that are, or wish to be, represented. The approach taken by Scandinavian museums in response to this challenge highlights a very active concern for forms of cultural diversity and how they are interrelated.
By bringing together debates and discussions of diversity, this volume offers insight into the Nordic region and its diverse peoples, from the Sámi and the Inuit to newer immigrants. It presents a set of historical reviews on the formation of national museums and emerging and contested perceptions of national identity. Furthering the general debate on representations of diversity and museums, it also offers museum curators possible ways forward.
Table of Content
Preface Jack Lohman
Introduction: The Construction of Identities: Introduction and Overview
Katherine Goodnow
SECTION I: MUSEUMS, NATIONAL MINORITIES AND THE INDIGENOUS
Chapter 1. Indigenous Peoples and National Minorities in Norway: Categorisation and Minority Politics
Einar Niemi
Chapter 2. Cultural Diversity at the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm: Outline of a Story
Eva Silvén
Chapter 3. Sámi Museums and Cultural Heritage
Vuokko Hirvonen
Chapter 4. Return of the Prodigal Son – But is the Seat Taken?
Peter Pentz
Chapter 5. An Appetite Whetted
Julie Edel Hardenberg and Iben Mondrop Salto
Chapter 6. The Danish Jewish Museum: A New Museum Asserts its Character
Janne Laursen
Chapter 7. Cultural Minorities in Danish Museums
Søren Kjørup
Chapter 8. Kven Culture and History in Museum Terms
Lena Aarekol
SECTION II: MUSEUMS AND ‘NEW MIGRANTS’
Chapter 9. The Museum of World Culture: A ‘Glocal’ Museum of a New Kind
Cajsa Lagerkvist
Chapter 10. Seeking the Multicultural in the Arts in Finland
Lily Diaz
Chapter 11. Norwegian Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow? A Joint Documentation Project
Liv Hilde Bøe
Chapter 12. Embroidered History
Lise Poulsen and Mette Skougaard
Chapter 13. Norwegian Kurdish Virtual Museum: A Presentation of Stateless Heritage
Janne Mellingen
Chapter 14. As in a Mirror
Hans Philip Einarsen and Bente Møller
Chapter 15. Botkyrka Multicultural Centre
Leif Magnusson
SECTION III: NATION AND HERITAGE
Chapter 16. Cultural Heritage, Cultural Diversity, and Museums in Sweden: Some Critical Reflections
Barbro Klein
Chapter 17. Intangible Cultural Heritage and Ethnographic Museum Practice in a Global Perspective
Inger Sjørslev
Chapter 18. Museums and Collective identity: A New Concept of the Nation?
Knut Kjeldstadli
Chapter 19. Pluralism, Cultural Heritage and the Museum
Haci Akman
Chapter 20. Representing Community: National Museums Negotiating Differences and Community in the Nordic Countries
Peter Aronsson
Chapter 21. Museums and Related Institutions on the Faroe Islands
Jóan Pauli Joensen
Chapter 22. The Negotiation of Identity within a National Museum: Iceland
Katla Kjartansdóttir and Kristinn Schram
Chapter 23. Exhibition Forms and Influential Circumstances
Katherine Goodnow
About the author
Haci Akman is Associate Professor at the Department of Archaeology, History, Culture and Religious Science, University of Bergen. His research interests include migration, diaspora processes, ethnicity, cultural heritage and museums and diversity. Recent publications in these fields focus on Kurdish and Jewish diaspora societies in the United Kingdom and Norway. Akman is currently working on the development of the Norwegian Kurdish Virtual Museum.