Maasai Women: Creators of Culture, Keepers of Knowledge

If you want to talk about decolonizing museums and other knowledge institutions in this world then you need to speak with those who preserve, produce, and pass on culture. In the fascinating and complex case of the Maasai and their engagement with museums in the UK, it is women who play an essential role in knowing about what an artifact is, how it is made, and why it is important. Despite this fact, in this growing global conversation, the voices we more often hear are male.

Today on the program we hear from two women of the Maasai, to learn about their role within communities as well as in the process of decolonizing the museums.

As always: Insight Share on Youtube and Twitter is where to see and hear more about the Maasai and other indigenous communities telling their own stories.

Decolonizing Museums: The Maasai & Oxford

Almost three years ago Samwel Nangiria paid a visit the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. While there he was presented with objects gathered from his culture around 100 years ago. To his shock the collection included items that should never be in the possession of a museum or out of the hands of specific members of the Maasai community. He would eventually express his feelings to the museum, and what follows has become a fascinating and at times emotional engagement to de-colonize museums and empower the Maasai to tell their own story of who they are as a living culture today.

Check out Maasai and other Participatory Video (PV) productions on Insight Share’s Youtube Channel.