Debate contribution: Decolonisation of Museum Collections and Repatriation of Artefacts
Debate contribution by Mr Brian Kingston on .
- MLA
- Mr Brian Kingston
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 20 May 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Decolonisation of Museum Collections and Repatriation of Artefacts
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4963886
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The well-known opening sentence of L P Hartley's 'The Go-Between' is:
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there".
The relevance of that quote is that we cannot fairly judge the actions of history by our 21st-century standards. Empires have been normal throughout the history of the world. It has been a continual cycle of rise and fall that continues to this day, albeit in different forms. If nations or communities request items back that were acquired unlawfully, it is right that museums work with those communities and cooperate with their requests. We have seen the Ulster Museum's continued work with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. National Museums Northern Ireland acknowledges in its collections development policy that there is a complex and sensitive legacy to address today. We know that those issues are complex, but we should not be placing an undue burden on our museums to address the political activism of the 21st century. What exactly is meant by "decolonising"? Without proper dialogue, it may be nothing short of virtue signalling. Speaking about empire, we need more nuance than to say that it was simply good or bad. Where does decolonisation end? With the bulldozing of the Colosseum? The SDLP Member for East Londonderry took to social media recently claiming that "the coloniser mindset runs deep". If we were to decolonise museums, perhaps the SDLP could let us know whether unionists would be allowed to enter the building. We have fantastic museums in Northern Ireland; places where people can visit and see how machinery worked, how people lived and thought and what they created.
No, I will not have time. Sorry. Visitors are presented with the information and make their own judgement. It might be a surprise to some Members, but people are capable of using their critical judgement skills and reaching their own conclusions. They do not need to be lectured or told how or what to think. Museums should not hide from difficult areas of history or sanitise our history or their collections. Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, said:
"For a museum like the V&A, to decolonise is to decontextualise".
The British Empire has been called:
"a global mosaic of almost ungraspable complexity and staggering contrasts",
so any generalisation comes with risk. Alongside a history of violence, there is a history of cosmopolitanism and trade. We saw the Benin Bronzes returned to the current oba — king — of Benin, and the Nigerian Government issued a decree to give the oba exclusive rights to all repatriated bronzes. Will the same fate befall all other repatriated artefacts such that, rather than being the common property of all the citizens of a nation, they become the personal property of its ruler? The Communities Minister is committed to ensuring that our museums are accessible to as many people as possible so that people from around the globe can admire their collections. Recently, he announced £750,000 for the Ulster American Folk Park in County Tyrone. To simply return items to one country or another would be to segregate cultures. Exchange programmes between museums is one possible solution to that problem, as it would ensure that more people could admire more artefacts from different parts of the world. The motion refers to the impact of colonialism "on this island". Professor of modern history at Trinity College Dublin Jane Ohlmeyer said:
"Both Irish catholics and protestants were active agents in the making of the Empire"
and that the Irish people:
"were active in all the European empires and even the spiritual empires – through the Catholic schools and the Jesuits".
The British Empire was synonymous with economic development, building infrastructure, promoting education and providing medical treatment. Those facts are not convenient to detractors, as they expose as myths their claims of perpetual victimhood and nationalist struggles for freedom. We will not support the Sinn Féin motion. The Ulster Unionist Party amendment replaces wording at the end of the motion, improving it by introducing more balanced wording, so we will support that amendment.
677 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations
Jev’s structured answers met every documented threshold for a qualifying culture-war activity.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.64 (qualifying needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not qualifying).
- Criteria met: Dog-whistle messaging (0.84).
- The text adopts the identity-based framing in its own voice (0.86).
- Subject area: Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations.
- The text adopts an antagonistic or dog-whistle framing, which qualifies even alongside legitimate scrutiny.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.54 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.57 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.32 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.84 | Yes |
| Controversy escalation | 0.58 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.44 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.64 | Between thresholds |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing | 0.11 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.02 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.01 |
| Adopts it (chosen) | 0.86 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.55 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.14 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.11 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.08 |
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.06 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:32 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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