A festive inauguration of the Reinwardt UNESCO Chair

Published on December 10, 2025

In a packed lecture hall filled with colleagues, (international) professional partners, researchers, alumni, and government officials, the inauguration of our UNESCO Chair took place on 13 November. This spring, the Reinwardt Academy was awarded the UNESCO Chair Museum Collections, Repatriation and Interculturality, the sixteenth UNESCO Chair in the Netherlands. The inauguration featured a keynote lecture by Chairholder Mirjam Shatanawi and a panel discussion moderated by Professor of Cultural Heritage Hester Dibbits. The first Reinwardt Heritage Intervention Awards were also presented.

Keynote Lecture
After a welcome by director Cathy Jager, Chairholder Mirjam Shatanawi delivered the keynote lecture: “Beyond the Object: Intangible Heritage, Dispossessed Knowledge, and the Repatriation of Collections from Colonial Contexts.” Using various examples from Indonesia, Suriname, Benin, and Iran, she highlighted different aspects of how the colonial past continues to shape the present, and what this means for museum collections and potential restitution. The core of her argument was that the restitution of colonial objects and collections should never be a goal in itself, but rather a possible means of rebuilding relationships and achieving equality between countries and communities. It is crucial to acknowledge that these objects were part of Indigenous knowledge systems that suffered from their loss. There is a responsibility to consider this intangible dimension in restitution processes. The form this takes depends on the context, with primary authority resting with the source communities.

“To go beyond the object is to acknowledge that what was taken was not only what could be touched, but also what could be known. If restitution is to be transformative, it must become an act of renewal: of knowledge systems, of relationships, and of trust.” - Mirjam Shatanawi, 2025

The keynote lecture can be viewed on the Reinwardt Academy YouTube channel.

Panel Discussion
The panel discussion that followed featured Santosh Singh, director of the Suriname Museum in Paramaribo; lecturer and member of the Reinwardt UNESCO Chair team Britt-Marie van der Drift; and Mirjam Shatanawi. Attendees had the opportunity to ask in-depth questions—and they certainly did. One thing was clear: restitution issues are more complex than often assumed. The conversations continued during the closing reception. View all photos of the inauguration of our UNESCO Chair here.

Heritage Intervention Award
During the intermezzo, Lector of Arts Education Melissa Bremmer, on behalf of the jury, presented the first Reinwardt Heritage Intervention Awards for the most impactful final projects in the Bachelor of Cultural Heritage and the Master of Applied Museum and Heritage Studies.
Arthur Veys (BA) and Josje-Marie Vrolijk (MA) were named the winners, with research on, respectively, the use of university collections for the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and the presentation of the biodiversity crisis at Naturalis.
Honourable mentions went to Merel van Buren, Fleur van Stratum, and Maiko Sato. Congratulations once again!

Are you a fourth-year bachelor student or a master’s student and want to know how you can compete for the Heritage Intervention Award? Click here.

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