Commons Museums

Abstract

This chapbook centres pedagogy within a new model of museum practice that prioritizes community. It focuses on two cultural institutions in Indonesia, the Pagesangan School in Yogyakarta and the Lakoat Kujawas in Mollo, East Nusa Tenggara, and uses the concept of the ‘commons museums’, which encompasses heritage, memory, and knowledge production to shape futures. The historical theft of cultural heritage and the extraction of natural resources are situated in Indonesia’s post-Reformation context, with collective archives becoming methodologies for survival. The commons museum expands perspectives around restitution, foregrounding collective research and community struggles as instruments for restoring justice and recovering knowledge.