Date: 26 November 2025
Time: 16:00-19:00
Location: Humboldt University Berlin
Organisation: Humboldt University Berlin, Network Colonial Collections
Language: German/English
On 26 November 2025, the Network Colonial Contexts of the Humboldt University in Berlin is celebrating its 5th anniversary. To mark this occasion, they invite those interested to an in-person event in Berlin for the first time. During the event, they will look back on the events of the last few years and take a look into the future.
The programma includes a guided tour through the photo collection of the art library and a roundtable discussion with Sarah Fründt (German Lost Art Foundation), Andrea Scholz (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) and Richard Kuba (Frobenius Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology), followed by drinks and dinner.
Final Conference Pressing Matter | Rethinking the Restitutionary Moment: What Next?Date: 27-28 November, 2025
Time: 09:00 – 17:00
Location: Wereldmuseum Leiden
Organisation: Pressing Matter, Wereldmuseum, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Research Center for Material Culture
Language: English
The multi-year research project Pressing Matter: Ownership, Value and the Question of Colonial Heritage in Museums draws to a close at the end of 2025. Pressing Matter, funded by the Dutch Science Agenda (NWA-NWO) and the consortium partners, investigated the future of objects collected in colonial times. It asked about the potentialities of ‘colonial objects’ to support societal reconciliation with the colonial past and its afterlives, and how best to deal with conflicting claims by different stakeholders for these objects.
This final confernce explores what Pressing Matter’s critical friend, Professor Ciraj Rassool, has described as the restitutionary moment we now inhabit. The conference is conceived of as a series of provocations from distinguished international scholars who have been involved, both both theoretically and practically, in the discussions around the question of what to do with the objects collected during the colonial period that now reside in European Museums. Each presenter is asked to respond to the question ‘what now, what next?’. These presentations will be followed by extended conversations with the different researchers from the Pressing Matter project about their initial aims at the beginning of the project, what we have done, and how these aims may have been revised over the period of the project. Importantly, the conference explores what further work must be done to achieve the kinds of changes that Pressing Matter had imagined at the start of the project: to explore how we might conceive of restitution beyond its programmatic and policy limitations, but also to address the questions that this restitutionary moment raises in national and international contexts about living within the afterlives of colonialism.
Achille Mbembe: A Future of Solidarity
The two-day conference is preceded by a Brainwash Special with Achille Mbembe at the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam on Wednesday 26 November 2025, from 19:00-22:00. In this Brainwash Special, Wayne Modest, Director of Content at Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, will be in conversation with Achille Mbembe to discuss the fractures that define our societies today. How do we hold on to solidarity in a world that seems to divide rather than connect? And what might a future look like in which everyone truly matters?
Seminar Moving objects, mobilising culture in the context of (de)colonizationDate: Tuesday 18 November
Time: 15:00-16:30 (CET)
Location: KITLV, Herta Mohr building, room 1.30 (Witte Singel 27A, Leiden) and online via Zoom
Organisation: KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies
Language: English
During this seminar, the 2025-2026 NIAS-NIOD-KITLV fellows of the Fellowship Moving Objects, Mobilising Culture, will present on their research. The program includes presentations by Panggah Ardiyansyah, Leandro Mathews Cascon and Ganga Dissanayaka.
The Moving Objects, Mobilising Culture Fellowship enables researchers and heritage practitioners from formerly colonized countries to access and conduct research on (collections of) objects – whether defined as cultural, historical, ancestral, art or otherwise – which are currently (lost) in the Netherlands, as well as on related archives and documentation. This fellowship is funded by the Colonial Collections Consortium.
The fellows are invited to actively use, reflect on and engage with these collections, but are also encouraged to explore and (re-)establish connections with related communities, collections and sites in the country of origin or other countries. Fellows are encouraged to follow queries regarding the social histories and valuation of objects, in relation to or beyond questions of restitution, and to seek for the signification of objects and their trajectories in space and time, beyond the framings of heritage institutions or national histories.
HERE: Heritage Reflections 2025Date: Monday 10 November
Time: 14:00 – 17:30
Location: Wereldmuseum Amsterdam
Organisation: Mondriaan Fonds and the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam
Language: English
On 10 November 2025, the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, and the Mondriaan Fonds are organizing a new edition of HERE: Heritage Reflections 2025. HERE is a seminar for both new and experienced heritage professionals, bringing them together to stimulate knowledge exchange and innovation. This edition focuses on the theme restitution.
The program includes a plenary discussion, workshops and guided tours. During a workshop on provenance research, speakers from the Colonial Collections Consortium will guide participants through the Colonial Collections Datahub and share insights into the platform’s latest developments.
Date: Wednesday 1 October
Time: 10:00 – 17:00
Location: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, Smallepad 5, Amersfoort
Organisation: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed en Nederlandse Kastelenstichting
Voertaal: Dutch
The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) and the Dutch Foundation for Castles (NKS) are organising a meeting on the shared past and joint future of castles and country houses. Together with experts, and the audience, they explore and discuss the heritage of castles and country houses, as part of the colonial past and the past of slavery. This meeting takes place on 1 October, 2025.
During the meeting, the presence and (in)visibility of traces of the slavery past are discussed, through practical case studies and recent research counducted at country estates. Additionally, the Colonial Collections Datahub is presented as a new digital research tool. The program allows space for different perspectives on the continuation of the colonial and the slavery past, and furthermore includes performances, spoken word and poetry.
SAHRA Heritage Month 2025: International Virtual SeminarDate: Thursday 18 September 2025
Time: 09:00 – 17:00
Location: Online
Organisation: South African Heritage Resources Agency
Language: English
As part of the SAHRA Heritage Month 2025, the South African Heritage Resources Agency is hosting a series of virtual seminars. This year’s webinar, under the theme ‘Resilient Heritage: Safeguarding South Africa’s Legacy in a Changing Climate,’ takes place over four days in a fully virtual format. The program aligns with broader G20 theme of Climate Change and Resilience, reflecting the commitment to engaging with global conversations on sustainability, climate adaptation, and cultural preservation.
On 18 September, the SAHRA will in particular focus on colonial collections and restitution, during the webinar ‘Restitution of Cultural Property’, bringing together global voices to explore pathways for return, protection, and circulation of cultural heritage. This dialogue will reflect on international best practices, highlight Africa’s experiences in restitution, and consider how G20 collaboration can strengthen policy, diplomacy, and ethical stewardship to include voluntary disclosures by the host/holding countries. By engaging experts, governments, and heritage practitioners, the webinar seeks to advance a shared commitment to justice, reconciliation, and sustainable cultural heritage management.
The full programme of this virtual seminar is available below.
Webinar Colonial Collections Datahub: introduction and conversation
The Colonial Collections Datahub is a digital platform that brings together, enriches and provides insights into collections from colonial contexts. It includes heritage from Suriname, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and many other countries and areas scattered across various institutions. In this webinar you will learn more about how the datahub works, how you can contribute and how it relates to your work. You will hear about local digital heritage initiatives and together we will exchange experiences and ideas around the role these platforms can play in restitution work.
These webinars are organised in collaboration between the Heritage Academy and Consortium Colonial Collections. The webinar will be given three times to facilitate participation across different time zones and regions:
South Asian and Southeast Asian context
Tuesday 30 September, 2025 | 10:00 – 12:00 CEST / 15.00 – 17:00 WIB
African context
Thursday 2 October, 2025 | 14:00 – 16:00 CEST / 13.00 – 15:00 WAT
Caribbean context
Wednesday 8 October, 2025 | 15:00 – 17:00 CEST / 09:00 – 11:00 AST
More information?
The European Working Conference on Collections from Colonial ContextsDate: 23-25 September 2025
Location: Amersfoort and Leiden, The Netherlands
Organisation: Colonial Collections Consortium
Language: English
Many museums and institutions across Europe are custodians of objects and collections originating from colonial contexts. As professionals managing these collections, and recognizing our shared responsibility in addressing historical injustices, how can we best fulfill this role? What can we learn from each other’s experiences?
The Consortium Colonial Collections in the Netherlands warmly invites museum and collection professionals across Europe to participate in The European Working Conference on Collections from Colonial Contexts.
Want to know more about this conference? Click the button below for more information.
Restitution in Practice: an Artistic Approach to the Return of Ancestral ObjectsDate: Tuesday 24 June 2025
Time: 4.00 – 6.00 PM (CEST)
Location: Kartini room at the University of Amsterdam
Address: Bushuis, Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX
Organisation: University of Amsterdam
Language: English, Spanish
The CHEco (Critical Heritage Ecologies) research initiative invites you to ‘Restitution in Practice: an Artistic Approach to the Return of Ancestral Objects’. Two members of the artistic collective Minga Prácticas Decoloniales will share their experiences and perspectives on the return of cultural objects held in European museums to their communities of origin in South America, with a particular focus on Colombia.
Focusing on their encounter with gold artifacts from the so-called Quimbaya Treasure—currently housed at the Museo de América in Madrid and the Humboldt Forum in Berlin—the artists explore how artistic practice can become a tool for reparation and reconnection. Drawing on the ritual and spiritual dimensions of Indigenous knowledge, they reflect on how art can help reweave the broken ties between objects, memory, and territory.
Speakers: Estefanía García Pineda and Edinson Quiñones
Moderator: María Suárez Caicedo
Registration
Please register by sending an email to m.p.suarezcaicedo@uva.nl
Date: Thursday 26 June 2025
Time: 01.30 – 4.30 PM (CEST)
Location: Wereldmuseum Leiden
Address: Steenstraat 1 2312 BS Leiden
Organisation: Universiteit Leiden, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Language: English
Leiden University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam are jointly organizing a networking event as part of the joint sector theme ‘Cultural heritage and identity: collecting, management and transfer’. You are cordially invited to attend.
The restitution of objects and collections and the decolonization of the institutions to which these collections belong are high on the agenda. Through co-creation and new, digital techniques, collections managers want to open up collections in a more equitable and inclusive way. These trends require us to reflect not only on our practice as researchers, but also on our conceptual understanding of the collection, management and transfer of cultural heritage.
What is the place of cultural heritage collections in our research? How is the digitization of these collections changing our research practice? And to what extent do archival and research infrastructures – digital and physical – influence our approach to heritage collections?
On 26 June we would like to discuss these questions and share experiences with you, together with partners from the heritage sector. The programme will start with four presentations followed by a panel discussion and debate with the audience.
- Mariana de Campos Françozo (Universiteit Leiden) – Indigenous South America in Museum Collections: Evolving Research Perspectives
- Quinsy Gario (Vrije Universiteit) – In Plain Sight: Dutch Afro-Caribbean art practices and Dutch colonial collections
- Alicia Schrikker (Universiteit Leiden) – Colonial Collections and the Repatriation of Objects
- Lorella Viola (Vrije Universiteit) – Polyvocal Interpretations of Contested Colonial Heritage