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You are invited to the inauguration of our UNESCO Chair
We are pleased to officially launch our UNESCO Chair Museum Collections, Repatriation and Interculturality in the presence of our partners and the wider heritage sector in the Netherlands and abroad with this hybrid event.
Programme details
7:00pm • 7:10pm Welcome by Cathy Jager, Director of the Reinwardt Academy
7:10pm • 7:45pmBeyond the Object: Intangible Heritage, Dispossessed Knowledge, and the Repatriation of Collections from Colonial Contexts keynote lecture by Chairholder Mirjam Shatanawi
7:45pm • 8pm Award ceremony Reinwardt Heritage Intervention Award
8pm • 8:30pmPanel discussion on the implications of this understanding of ICH for current museum and heritage work in the Caribbean. Moderated by lector Hester Dibbits, head of the Reinwardt research group on Cultural Heritage
Mirjam Shatanawi, UNESCO Chairholder
Santosh Singh, Director Surinam Museum (Paramaribo)
Britt-Marie van der Drift, member of the Reinwardt UNESCO Chair team, heritage educator
8:30pm • 9:30pm Drinks
Click here to sign up for the event
About the keynote lecture
Beyond the Object: Intangible Heritage, Dispossessed Knowledge, and the Repatriation of Collections from Colonial Contexts
By Mirjam Shatanawi, Chairholder
Discussions on the repatriation or restitution of cultural objects collected in colonial contexts have traditionally prioritized the material transfer of artifacts from museums in the Global North to their countries of origin. Yet colonial dispossession involved more than the removal of artifacts: it also entailed the extraction, suppression, and reconfiguration of knowledge systems, from ritual expertise and oral traditions to craft techniques and spiritual epistemologies. UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, alongside the 1970 Convention on the Ilflicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property, underscores the inseparability of tangible and intangible dimensions of heritage. This lecture examines how intangible heritage and displaced knowledge informs and complicates contemporary restitution processes. Attention will be given to case studies where intangible heritage has guided claims, negotiations, and reinterpretations of collections, and where knowledge sharing has been mobilized to redefine the meanings of return.
This lecture is delivered to launch the Reinwardt UNESCO Chair on Museum Collections, Repatriation and Interculturality, a research and outreach platform established in 2025 that foregrounds museum practice, intercultural knowledge exchange, and the study of repatriation and intangible heritage. In line with the Chair’s mission, the lecture situates restitution not only as a juridical or museological act but also as a site of epistemic justice and intercultural dialogue, raising critical questions about whether and how displaced knowledge can be restituted, and what forms of repair and cultural sovereignty may emerge in the process of return.
Mirjam Shatanawi
Mirjam Shatanawi is a Senior Lecturer at the Reinwardt Academy and, with a team, holder of the UNESCO Chair on Museum Collections, Repatriation and Interculturality. She works on colonial collections, silences, and representation, especially in connection to Muslim heritage. She is the author of Legacies of Colonialism in Museum Collections: The (Un)Making of Indonesian Islam in the Netherlands (Brill, 2025), Islam at the Tropenmuseum (LM Publishers, 2014), Islam in Beeld (SUN, 2008) and co-editor of Islam and Heritage in Europe: Pasts, Presents and Future Possibilities (Routledge, 2021).
Britt-Marie van der Drift
Britt-Marie van der Drift is a lecturer at the Reinwardt Academy, part of the Amsterdam University of the Arts. Her teaching and research focus on the history and legacies of transatlantic slavery and colonialism, with particular attention to narratives of resistance, museums, and contested heritage. In addition to her academic work, she serves as the Executive Director of Cowrie Atlantic, an organization committed to advancing knowledge and dialogue on the Dutch transatlantic slavery past within an international context.
Santosh Singh
Santosh Singh is the Director/Conservator of the Stichting Surinaams Museum and the CEO of True North, Suriname’s first archaeological company (founded in 2023). He earned his MA in Archaeology from Leiden University in 2020 and has since conducted several archaeological researches across Suriname. Since 2025, he has been pursuing a PhD in museology at the Anton de Kom University of Suriname (ADEK), while auditing classes at the Reinwardt Academy in Amsterdam to advance his expertise in museology and heritage management. His work connects archaeology, museum practice, and intercultural collaboration.