Constitution of Restitution: Engaging With Indonesian Artifacts as Pusaka in Popular Media

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 3:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: International Perspectives of Education (Table 6)

Abstract

This paper analyzes and interprets popular media surrounding processes of restitution as a global phenomenon with specific focus on the return of Indonesian artifacts. Using approaches from grounded theory and discourse analysis, the paper examines news articles to engage with objects taken by the Dutch from Indonesia and consider communities of discourse and their relationships and orientations to pusaka, or heirlooms and objects of cultural and ancestral significance. The findings shared in this paper are based on examples and subsequent analysis of discourse specific to various stakeholders and their relationships to objects of cultural significance. The paper concludes by sharing implications that address historical injustices and reclaim cultural heritage.

Author

• Joel E. Berends, Michigan State University