ReConnect/ReCollect: Reparative Connections to Philippines Collections at the University of Michigan

ReConnect/ReCollect: Reparative Connections to Philippine Collections at the University of Michigan is a diverse group of faculty, librarians, archivists, curators, collections managers, students, and members of the Filipino/Filipinx community committed to developing models for culturally-responsive and historically-minded stewardship of the Philippine collections at the University of Michigan. After an extensive period of exploration in summer 2021, ReConnect/ReCollect is embarking on a two-year project with the overall goal of creating both the framework and the corresponding set of practices that will intervene in contemporary scholarship and curation. During this period, the team will pursue what constitutes reparative work for the University of Michigan’s Philippine collections that were acquired during the US colonial period in the Philippines. At the heart of the project are three interrelated interventions: reparative curation, reparative connections to community, and reparative scholarship.

The first project of its kind for Philippine collections, this project offers a new vantage point from which to participate in scholarly conversations around decolonizing collections, with the goal of constructing models for community engagement and more ethical stewardship. The project builds on recent efforts to decolonize collections, which foreground Indigenous perspectives and community collaboration, consultation, and dialogue to construct a model of relationality and shared stewardship.

Principal Investigators: Deirdre de la Cruz, Ricky Punzalan

Project Team: Chad Kamen, Emily Na, Jim Moss, Kerstin Barndt, Kristi Rhead, Madeline Bacolor, Martha O’Hara Conway, Nancy Bartlett, Nick Trudeau, Robert Diaz, and Sony Prosper