PICCH explores how archival material created in a colonial mindset can be re-appropriated and re-interpreted to become an effective source for decolonization and the basis for a future inclusive society

PICCH - Polyvocal Interpretation of Contested Colonial Heritage engenders a polyvocality that can be incorporated into the archive itself providing new ways to enter and explore the past via a contemporary interpretative frame.

Many memory institutions across Europe hold records of a  colonial past now contested from both communities of origin, ethnic minorities and civil society at large. Professionals in the field ask what to do with this problematic heritage, from returning items when appropriate, to rewriting the historical context in a more critical and inclusive way.

Partners in PICCH are three colonial audio-visual heritage organisations with a rich collection of original film and sound, some of it produced at the height of empire, ranging from ethnographers' footage for 'educational' purposes to more direct propaganda films to bolster colonial ideologies.

PICCH draws from the different expertise of the partners, from archive and user studies, to natural language processing technologies, to postcolonial theory, to co-creation. PICCH aims to draw a common map of racialised representations and their imperial contexts and use problematic visualisation and language in the records to open up a dialogue between the heritage and a variety of users, including archivists, researchers, filmmakers, and grassroots organisations.

Find out more about the project on the PICCH website.