Non-Performative Decolonization

This article examines approaches to decolonization in the UK museum sector, through the lens of Sara Ahmed’s notion of non-performative utterances. The avalanche of responses of the sector to the global 2020 Black Lives Matter protests is framed in the article as statements that do not bring into effect what they name while also preventing further reflection. To do so, the article analyzes, on the one hand, a series of reports issued from 2022 to 2024 looking at changes in the sector post-2020 and, on the other hand, the personal accounts of museum workers of color in the context of decolonial initiatives and EDI (equality, diversity, and inclusion) programs. Ahmed’s work, in dialogue with Brook et al. shows how the museum sector’s postures of self-criticality do not automatically give way to systemic change but rather allow critical awareness to sit alongside persistent and largely unchallenged racial inequality.