Representing difficult histories and contested heritage in museums

Published together with University of Jyväskylä/Open Science Centre. Museums are one source of leisure, with visits forming activities for local community members in their free time, as well as touristic attractions for visitors on vacation. For many people, museums are also a source of knowledge and they perceive them to be an authority from which they expect to receive verified information. This can take place for example through organized school and college visits, visits made in free time or through participation in museum-led projects and events. Therefore the decisions that museums make about how to present history, and what (or more importantly whose) history they present – and what strategies they employ to present this history – have the potential to inform and influence perspectives on the past in the present. When this contains difficult memories connected to warfare, atrocities or discrimination and oppression based on ethnicity, gender or anything else, museums have to be especially mindful of how they treat and present these topics. In this chapter, I explore some of the frameworks informing representation in museums and use case studies from within Finland and from elsewhere. I investigate some of the ethical questions that emerge around the politics of representation. While there are no hard and fast answers to how museums should engage with difficult and painful history, I suggest reflection upon the impacts of challenging public perceptions through innovative approaches to museum display. These themes also intersect with the wider question of the social responsibility of museums.