Co-collecting : Materialising German-Samoan Colonial Legacies

The German-Samoan colonial legacy is little studied and understood but increasingly gaining attention through (post)colonial debates and (re)negotiations on both sides of the common relationship. Te Papa, a major national institution in Aotearoa New Zealand – a country with its own ongoing (post)colonial relationship with Samoa – is uniquely placed to substantiate this (re)growing dialogue through its Pacific collection.

The topic German-Samoan Colonial Legacies is devoted to this objective by (re)telling this large story through a dual historical and contemporary focus, and through a double Samoan-German lens. Historical objects from the collection and their associated stories allow for the re-historicizing of the shared past and will be brought into dialogue with contemporary objects, such as art pieces, thus materialising the evolving nature of the Samoan-German legacy in the present.

To (re)tell a story which literally spans the globe, we have chosen objects that are inherently mobile – such as flags, stamps, coins and postcards – and thus function as travelling media symbolizing and enacting the various connections.