MGS on Empire, Slavery & Scotland’s Museums Steering Group Recommendations
Today, the Empire, Slavery & Scotland’s Museums Steering Group make recommendations to the Scottish Government on how Scotland’s involvement in empire, colonialism, and historic slavery can be addressed using museum collections and spaces.
The six recommendations by the Empire, Slavery & Scotland’s Museums Steering Group are:
- Scotland should create a dedicated space to address our role in empire, colonialism, and historic slavery. A new organisation should be created to lead this work.
- Museums should ensure anti-racism is embedded in their workplaces and public spaces.
- Museums should involve the people of Scotland in shaping their work through co-production, to promote cultural democracy and participation for all.
- Museums should commit to research, interpret, and share the histories of Scotland’s links to empire, colonialism, and historic slavery.
- Museums should support efforts to promote and embed race equality and anti-racism in the curricula in a meaningful, effective, and sustainable way.
- Scottish Government should demonstrate their support for restitution and repatriation of looted or unethically acquired items in Scottish collections.
The report outlines the implications of each recommendation for those organisations that will be most directly impacted by the work. This includes the Scottish Government, the museums sector, and Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) as the national development body for the sector.
MGS welcomes the report and is currently reviewing the recommendations and look forward to sharing our response in the coming weeks.
Read the full report on the Empire, Slavery and Scotland’s Museums Steering Group Recommendations and Empire, Slavery and Scotland’s Museums: A Guide to the Consultation.