Democratizing Museum Practice Through Oral History, Digital Storytelling, and Collaborative Ethical Work

The museum as an institution can trace its origins to the colonization process. Many are still undemocratic and exclusionary institutions by nature. This article explores how digital collections, digital storytelling, and ethical guidelines for museum professionals working with historically marginalized communities can contribute to democratize museum practice and theory. Making use of two case studies: 1) the creation of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ (CMHR) oral history collection; and 2) the planning of the Swedish Museum of Movements’ (MoM) ethical guidelines – this piece proposes a shift from theory to practice in human rights museology to help institutions be more attuned and responsive to the communities they intend to serve. Both case studies demonstrate that implementing human rights museology in national museums is not an easy task and still faces multiple challenges. Yet, they also indicate that this concept can be more productively informed through practices developed by the marginalized groups which have been historically excluded from taking part in the decision-making processes in museums.