Decolonisation - what it is and what it is not

I lead a group at work to look at decolonising the Library's collections, and practices, and at how we can help academic colleagues who want to decolonise their teaching.

What is "decolonising"?

It certainly is not ditching "traditional" things like Chaucer or the British Empire.    It certainly does not mean the Library will throw away all the Chaucer.    I doubt many in academia think it means that, and we are explicit in our group's publicity that we do not mean that either.  You do not have to remove Chaucer from the curriculum in order to decolonise the curriculum. 

Keep Chaucer but look at how he wrote about Jewish people, or women.  Look at many people's views about his writing.   

It is also not removing bits of our history and pretending they did not happen.   In fact, I think you could argue that if you do not decolonise, you are removing bits of our history by concentrating only on certain viewpoints.

So what is "decolonising"?    For example (it seems to me), it means reading and studying literature by writers who are not dead white straight Western men.    It means studying the British Empire from the perspective of people in the countries that were part of that Empire.    It means acknowledging that non western cultures do not operate or transmit wisdom and thought, in the same way as western ones.    

In the sciences it means acknowledging and studying the contributions of scientists who are or were women, or gay, or not white.

In medicine it means making sure not all cases used in teaching are white men.   It means making sure the Library has books about pregnant women's experience of childbirth, not just textbooks written by men.   It means having books about skin conditions and diseases as they affect non white skin.

These are not easy subjects, if, like me, you are in the group whose voice has always been listened to.    But it is time to listen to others' voices.    It always has been, of course, but it is, and that is what decolonisation means.

Note: This was drafted before the publication of the report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, and I have not revised it.