Christian Ernsten awarded funding for project on recurating colonial-era collections

NWO has awarded funding to eight research projects in the second round of the Call “Research into collections with a colonial context”. Christian Ernsten is co-applicant on one of these projects, titled ‘Unsilencing as Restitution (UnRest). Recurating the Robert Jacob Gordon collections in the contemporary South African landscape’. The project is led by Siona O'Connell (University of Pretoria) and aims to fundamentally rethink the interpretation and display of colonial-era scientific and cultural collections from South Africa.

About the project

UnRest focuses on the historically significant yet deeply contested archives and artworks associated with Robert Jacob Gordon (1743–1795) – a Dutch military officer and explorer whose documentation of the Cape region shaped European knowledge of South Africa during the 18th century. Today, Gordon’s collections are dispersed across Dutch and South African museums, libraries, and archives, carrying with them layered histories of scientific curiosity, dispossession, and colonial power. Christian Ernsten will help advance UnRest’s mission to critically recontextualize Gordon’s materials for contemporary audiences.

The project includes a strong consortium of institutional partners: the Bartolomeu Dias Museum, National Archives of the Netherlands, Brenthurst Library, Drostdy Museum, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, and the Western Cape Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport.

UnRest seeks to answer pressing questions around ethical stewardship, restitution, and the role of museums in addressing painful pasts:

• How should colonial collections be interpreted in a postcolonial society?
• What responsibilities do Dutch and South African institutions share in stewarding this history?
• How can this work foster dialogue, healing, and future-focused collaboration?

By placing community voices and critical scholarship at the centre of its methodology, UnRest is poised to transform long-held narratives about early scientific exploration in South Africa – and to support innovative forms of curatorial practice and international partnership.

About the funding instrument

Dutch museum collections may contain objects looted from colonial contexts. The NWA call “Research into collections with a colonial context” programme aims to redress injustices and strengthen trust and cooperation with the countries of origin.

The awarded projects aim to promote knowledge development, knowledge exchange and cooperation between researchers from countries where the museum collections and objects with a colonial context originally come from. These projects also support cooperation between these international researchers and museums in the Netherlands.