What is changing, really?
This piece was recently presented at the Many Memories, Many Voices (MMMV) project symposium, co-hosted by Queen’s, ArtsEkta and the Irish Museums Association, in June 2024 at Belfast Central Library and subsequently published in Vol. 32 of the Museum Ireland journal in 2025.
I was delighted to participate in this timely conversation, alongside many people I alreadyadmired. But in thinking about what I might be able to offer, I became sorely aware of my own position.
I am a white, middle-class, well-educated, heterosexual, cis-gendered woman. I am oftenlabelled as Protestant and Unionist, though I wouldn’t describe myself in those terms. I’ve even been called a Planter. Undeniably, my background gives me privilege and I cannot escape or deny its influence on me.
But labels are only ever a shorthand, and rarely describe an individual well. Just as I know I cannot presume to speak for anyone who identifies as I do, I also know I cannot speak for anyone whose identity is different to my own. The most important thing I have learned, as a heritage practitioner, is the value of investing time in listening to and learning from others.
As I move in the spaces between organisations and communities, I see positive signs of change. People committed to diversifying the story of our past and present, and making space for communities who have been marginalised, or even traumatised, by our public institutions. However, it is painfully clear that most of this work is still happening on the periphery, through short-term project funding.
And I am left questioning — what is really changing?
It is time, beyond time, for this work to move to the centre. Diversification is still needed in museum collections, in exhibitions, in events in education. But change also needs to take place behind the scenes, systemic change.
Decolonisation is just one vital aspect of a much larger project, to create a just and equal society, for everyone.
It’s a big project, overwhelming even. It can be difficult to know where to begin. How can I, how can any of us, make a difference?
My own thinking and practice have been transformed by being introduced to the work of Octavia Butler and adrienne maree brown. I only wish I knew of them sooner. Now, I carry some of Octavia Butler’s words with me, as a kind of personal mantra.
All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.
We all have the power to create change. No matter how immovable institutions and funding structures seem to be, they are created by people, and people have the power to change them.
Our priority, as I see it, is to create more space for human encounter, for listening and learning from each other. Safe, welcoming spaces where people can speak freely, as equals. Spaces where people have agency to make decisions about the things that shape their lives.
Things will change as a result. We already know that transformational change can happen when people engage with heritage. But transformational change is also possible when heritage (as a sector) engages with people. If we expect people to change through engaging with us, we should also expect to BE CHANGED, by engaging with them.
All that you touch, you change.
All that you change, changes you.
References:
brown, adrienne maree. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. AK Press, 2017.
Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993.
marisha, Walidah, and adrienne maree brown, eds. Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. 2015; AK Press, 2015.