Healing across times and nations. The conference dedicated to the multidimensional sensitive legacy, 13–14 November 2024, Wrocław

The conference “Sensitive Legacy in University Collections: Between Adaptation and Restitution” held in Wrocław on 13–14 November 2024, explored the complex legacy of human remains, ethnographic objects, and photographs collected by German anthropologist Hermann Klaatsch in early 20th-century Australia. These collections, now housed at the University of Wrocław and the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, were critically examined through the lenses of multidimensional memory, sensitive heritage, and post-colonial ethics. The event marked a historic moment as it was the first in Poland to feature not only Australian scholars but also representatives from the Yawuru community, whose ancestral remains and cultural artifacts were forcibly taken by Klaatsch. Drawing on Michael Rothberg’s concept of multidirectional memory and Philipp Schorch’s notion of sensitive heritage, the conference highlighted how colonial, totalitarian, and post-war histories intersect within museum collections. It emphasized Poland’s role as a secondary inheritor of colonial legacies – despite its non-colonial past – through the post-World War II appropriation of German academic collections. The conference sessions covered a wide range of topics, from the ethical challenges of displaying sensitive objects to the role of repatriation in cultural healing, with contributions from scholars, museum professionals, and Indigenous activists.