Participants in the Commonwealth Association of Museums (CAM)’s Triennial General Conference, Living Forward, Looking Back: Museum Practice for Postcolonial Futures met at the Iziko Museums of South Africa in Cape Town from March 9-15, 2020 to discuss various museums’ approaches to confronting difficult histories. Nearly 100 participants came from 22 countries, including both Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth nations,[1] indicative of the fact that Europe has also begun to address the issues of repatriation, restitution and reconciliation that have been such a part of CAM’s work since the mid-1990s.
Commonwealth countries included: Australia, Botswana, Canada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Seychelles, South Africa, Trinidad, and Tobago, United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe; and non-Commonwealth countries included: Austria, Croatia, Lithuania, Norway, Serbia, Sweden, and the United States.