Fellow: Toluwanimi Owolana
Toluwanimi Owolana is a Nigerian artifact biographer and researcher with seven years of experience designing engagement programs that promote Indigenous narratives and revitalize cultural heritage.
She specializes in unraveling the stories behind ancient artifacts to connect contemporary audiences with the past. She is a fellow of the Connecting the Dots Museum Fellowship, hosted by the Goethe-Institut, Nigeria in partnership with the Ford Foundation and the National Museum Benin. She is a recipient of the Cultural Heritage Forward program, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the Smithsonian Institution. She is also an alumna of the Hague Academy for Local Governance, The Netherlands where she furthered her expertise on the inclusion of marginalized groups in the cultural industry.
While in Amsterdam for the Global Slavery Fellowship, her research will be centered on “Decolonizing racialized toys from the late 19th century through digital illustration and artifact biography.” This combined methodology opens space for transformative dialogue on representation, memory, and the reclamation of cultural identity. By reframing artifacts with painful connections to slavery, this project seeks to promote decolonizing practices within museums, foster restorative justice, and encourage a renewed perspective of cultural respect and representation. Through a decolonizing perspective on artifacts, this project will support the Global Slavery Fellowship by fostering a deeper understanding and empathy for the lived experiences these objects represent. It aims to encourage restorative justice and inspire fresh innovation in the portrayal of marginalized communities.
