Interpreting Borneo in Britain

Borneo's rich and diverse cultures fascinated European collectors and anthropologists throughout the colonial period. Charles Hose, stationed in the remote Baram region in Sarawak, was keen to establish himself as a scholar and therefore positioned himself as a source of knowledge about Borneo's nature and culture. Through prolific collecting, photography and publications, Hose strove to dominate discussions about Borneo in Europe. In this, he was successful; his descriptions of Borneo's diverse cultures and the narratives presented in his writings and photographs can still be identified as strong influences on many public interpretations of Borneo today.  

A century on, this project is reassessing the extensive Hose Borneo collections by collating data from institutions including the British Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum, National Museum of Scotland, World Museum Liverpool and Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge. Analysing this data, comparing collections across institutions, and reuniting information about significant object groups will illuminate historical acquisition patterns and improve understanding of these collections' biographies. Meanwhile, the project is working with collaborators in Malaysian Borneo to share the Hose collections data with community stakeholders and initiate dialogue about how this information can be made more accessible and useful. These conversations also consider how colonial-era documentation can be updated and objects reinterpreted to place Bornean voices and knowledge at the forefront.   

The project aims to:

• Compile a database of Hose collections in British museums.
• Make this data publicly accessible online, thereby enhancing research capacity for museums, universities, NGOs and grass-roots heritage groups in Borneo, the UK and beyond.
• Raise awareness of the collections and the online data through public engagement activities in Malaysian Borneo.
• Complete a historical analysis of the collections, their acquisition and dispersal, contributing to a wider understanding of colonial collecting and knowledge production in Southeast Asia.
• Through co-curation with representatives from stakeholder communities, update and improve the documentation of the Hose collections in the British Museum, and contribute to updated documentation at other institutions.
• Provide a case-study for the collaborative reinterpretation of world collections with colonial histories in British museums.

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