Crafting Textile Knowledges : A decolonial study of the Iku/Arhuaco material culture in the archives of the National Museum of World Cultures in Gothenburg (Världskulturmuseet)

Sammanfattning: The return of objects that belong to ethnographic collections to their places of origin is one of the topics of discussion that, despite not being new, has been gaining more and more relevance today. Taking the Iku indigenous craft collection in the archives of the National Museum of World Cultures in Gothenburg as a case study, I pursue to develop an object-based methodology that increases and deepens the understanding of the notion of ethical stewardship, while joining current debates on indigenous heritage and decoloniality. This work aims to reveal material and immaterial aspects embedded in textile objects. The methodology included field visits to the museum archive, material culture analysis, and semi-structured interviews. The work evokes a decolonial discussion regarding the need to engage with epistemologies from the “South” and with methodologies not fully recognized by the dominant western-modern educational frameworks in order to achieve a more inclusive and assertive production of knowledge.