Fingerprints trailer – a new Ashmolean podcast starting 21 January

Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum. In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more. These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum. Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Fingerprints will be released on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, and wherever you get your podcasts, weekly from  21 January 2022 until 25 February 2022.

Fingerprints is produced and hosted by Lucie Dawkins. Guests include Bénédicte Savoy, co-author of the Report on African Cultural Heritage, commissioned by Emmanuel Macron; Professor Dan Hicks, of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum; and Simukai Chigudu, one of the founding members of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign.

--- Transcript for this trailer ---

Voice 1: Every object in the Ashmolean has passed from hand to hand to reach the Museum.

In a new podcast, we uncover the invisible fingerprints left behind by makers, looters, archaeologists, soldiers, rulers, curators, and many more.

These stories of touch reveal the ways in which the forces of conflict and colonialism have shaped Britain’s oldest Museum.

Join the Ashmolean’s curators alongside artists, experts, and community members, for our new podcast: Fingerprints.

Voice 2: It was magical to touch the impressions of someone’s hand, who may have made this piece thousands of years ago.

Voice 3: There’s a large gouge from the front of the statue of the pick that the Indian soldier had been using to dig his trench.

Voice 4: Those are signifiers and messages that are embedded, are hidden in them for each generation. So, their importance can never be underestimated even though they have been removed from where they were created.

Voice 5: It’s obvious that it’s the face of the human figure that has been scratched out.

Voice 6: One of the main attractions was the live display of 34 human beings who were transported from India.

Voice 7: So they’d suggests bribing a local Imam to say that the sculptures are against the tenets of Islam.

Voice 8: Although some of these stories can be uncomfortable they’re also vital. They’re stories which connect us to a vast global web of human experiences that allow the objects to speak to us in different ways and with different voices.

Voice 9: Because museums are very political places.

Voice 1: So, watch out for Fingerprints on the Ashmolean’s website, on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts, for weekly releases from the 21st of January.