Vanda Vitali*, John A. Moran*
Author’s
Information
Vanda
Vitali is an international museum executive. She held various museum positions
in Canada, US, New Zealand and France. Among the most recent are: Chief
Executive of the Canadian Museum Association, Ottawa, Canada; Director and
Chief Executive, Auckland Museum, Auckland, New Zealand; Vice President, public
programs and Director, content development, Natural History Museum, Los
Angeles, USA. By training, Vanda is a physicist and an art historian. The focus
of her current work is on reconciliation in museum practice.
John
A. Moran is an American clinical psychologist with three decades of experience
working with families in private practice, state and federal courts, and
hospital settings. He is an author of books and articles about working with
high conflict families. His current focus is psychological interventions to
promote forgiveness.
*For
Correspondence
Vanda Vitali, Ph.D
vanda.v.vitali@gmail.com
John A.
Moran, Ph.D
jm@jmphd.com
Western museums have been re-examining
their practices and adjusting their ethical stands, often in response to having
benefitted from colonial exploits or other such actions, in acquiring artifacts
for their collections. The goal of this paper is to investigate how a
bi-disciplinary perspective integrating museum practice with psychological
theory and research about forgiveness might contribute to museum processes
designed to mitigate and heal the impacts of diverse forms of cultural
conflict. First, western museums’ practices are examined that have contributed
to reconciliation between the minority groups and the dominant culture.
Reconciliation is examined within the context of repatriation of heritage
objects and broader museum contributions to social justice. Next, the
psychology of forgiveness is reviewed and how it can mitigate the impacts of
traumatic inter-group conflict. Finally, proposals are offered by which western
museums might utilize forgiveness to enhance inter-group reconciliation.
Keywords
Museums, Repatriation, Social Justice, Intergroup Forgiveness, Reconciliation
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