This paper examines how decolonisation discourse is operationalised in museum practice through a study of the Korean and Chinese collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Using Cultural Discourse Analysis (CuDA), combining site observation, archival research, and interviews with museum professionals, it analyses how East Asian narratives are constructed within displays and acquisition histories.

The findings highlight persistent imagined or biased representations of East Asia, ambiguous provenance histories, and institutional constraints that restrict curatorial renewal and deeper engagement with decolonial agendas. This research aims to initiate a pragmatic, context-sensitive approach to decolonisation, emphasising transparency, reflexivity, and collaboration, as an alternative to, or complement for, a restitution-focused approach. By foregrounding East Asian collections, the study contributes to wider debates on how museums can translate decolonisation from rhetoric into practice.

This paper investigates South Korea’s practices for managing overseas Korean collections as an approach for relational heritage equity. Rather than focusing on repatriation, South Korea has been utilising its cultural properties in museums outside of Korea as resources for heritage diplomacy, providing funding and expertise to overseas museums.
Using archival research and stakeholder interviews, this study evaluates how this collaborative model of managing Korean collections outside of Korea redistributes power, knowledge, and authorship. The paper first presents analysis results on institutional practices in the four case study museums in the UK, focusing on decision-making dynamics between UK museum stakeholders and Korean government agencies. It then moves to discuss whether providing resources instead of restitution offers an alternative approach to decolonise the museum space or creates new forms of institutional dependency, ultimately assessing if this approach promotes heritage equity.

This project re-examines the complex legacy of Austrian taxidermist and naturalist Andreas Reischek, who spent twelve years in Aotearoa and assembled one of the largest collections of Māori and Moriori taonga and ancestral remains taken to Europe. Remembered variously as a grave robber or a pioneering collector, he remains a contested figure within both Aotearoa and Austria. A new transinstitutional initiative led by the Upper Austrian State Museums brings together exhibition-making, artistic collaboration, research, and repatriation to address these entangled histories. An exhibition co-developed with Māori artists and an accompanying symposium explore themes of memory, confrontation, and the potential for reconciliation. The rediscovery and return of ancestral remains prompt wider reflection on Central European museum practices. A major digitisation project with Te Papa, Canterbury Museum, and the National Library of New Zealand will make Reischek’s writings and related materials accessible, reshaping long-standing institutional relationships.

Unmapped Territory: Cross-cultural Curation and Emergent Heritage.
Cross-cultural curation acknowledges, for instance, the intertwined modern development of tangata whenua and tangata tiriti cultures in Aotearoa while co-curation draws on community diversity to expand and deepen the reach of professional art and museum curators. This presentation reflects on the experience of a Pākehā media researcher involved in the development of Te Whaanau Maarama/the Heavenly Bodies, a 2016-2019 exhibition at Te Whare Taonga o Waikato on aspects of Māori astronomy, including the revitalization of Matariki celebrations. While the exhibition was successful, as a project that dealt with both authoritative, long-established mātauranga and the emergent heritage of popular culture, this co-created and to a degree, cross-cultural project provided an unfolding education in the assumptions informing the politics and processes of curation.