Decolonial Museum Practice Through Performance Art and Activation: A Collective Autoethnography

Abstract

Museums in general, but especially in Europe and white settler societies, are grappling with relevance as their colonial histories are contested. Within this context, performance art has emerged as a powerful tool for challenging dominant narratives and analysing oppressive systems within cultural institutions. Guided by concepts of decoloniality and decolonial methodology, this thesis critically analyses the potential of performance art to disrupt and subvert hegemonic structures of power and authority within museums. The focus is particularly on the decolonial efforts of institutions historically intertwined with imperial agendas. The research centres on the performance art practice of Rosanna Raymond, Pati Solomona Tyrell, and the FAFASWAG collective and their participation in events that I was involved with as a public programmer at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum—one of the few museums globally engaging in performance art activations. Utilising a collective autoethnographic approach and a qualitative multiple case study methodology, this research investigates four pivotal performances to examine, document, and comprehend the experiences of those involved in performance art, including artists, audiences, and myself as museum programmer. The analysis reveals that the performances' principles and methodological approaches, grounded in Indigenous concepts like teu-le-va, Va, Va-body, and Activation, offer alternative ways of knowing. These approaches not only diverge from the museum's inherent epistemological methods but also actively challenge and contest the presumption of institutional objectivity. Initiating crucial dialogues about museum practices, history-making, and the politics of indigenous material heritage dispossession, this analysis opens the way for a transformative discussion. By incorporating diverse voices, perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches, the research challenges the dominant narratives within museum spaces – as the performance art does itself – and prompts a re-evaluation of how history is constructed and presented, as well as illuminating some challenging pathways for change.