Not One Polyvocality but Many: Digital Heritage Across Unequal Histories

Polyvocality, often celebrated in (digital) heritage as a marker of inclusivity, plurality, and ethical representation, is frequently treated as a universal theoretical ideal. Yet the practical realities of postcolonial memory work reveal that polyvocality is not a stable or uniform concept. This presentation uses findings from the PICCH (Polyvocal Interpretations of Contested Colonial Heritage) project to demonstrate how instead, it is deeply position-dependent, shaped by whether it is enacted within a former colonising nation or a formerly colonised one. This contribution examines two contrasting contexts: (1) a physical historical exhibition in Paramaribo and its digital historical counterpart, and (2) the exhibition ‘Our colonial heritage’ at the Dutch World museum. Through a comparative, multimodal analysis, I argue that polyvocality in (digital) colonial heritage is not simply a matter of representation, but deeply infrastructural, political, and shaped by asymmetrical historical relationships.