Jenin Yaseen and Sameerah Ahmad, two Palestinian-American artists, were recently censored by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) when staff made changes to Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery.
The exhibition explores death rituals from around the world. But the museum had removed a panel with the word “Palestine” without the artists’ permission, as well as other elements relating to Palestine and Muslim mourning traditions.
The artists took to Instagram and then staged an 18-hour sit-in starting Oct. 28. From their account, r0mystery, they posted that the ROM’s actions made it “complicit in the dehumanization of Palestinians in both life and death.”
Feeling the heat, the ROM backtracked and on Nov. 3 agreed to reinstate the work in full, saying it had made the changes “to keep the focus of the exhibition on the cultural practices, rituals, and science surrounding life and death, rather than current events.”
However, on their Instagram account that same day, the artists said the ROM had not restored their work to its original — by redesigning it, incorrectly labeling items, misattributing quotes and misspelling names. They also say there was “a significant discrepancy in the way the English was translated into French, which completely changes the original words and meaning.”
The ROM added labels saying that the views expressed in the artwork did not reflect those of the museum. This includes what the artists describe as a discriminatory content warning on a barrier installed while approaching the green burial display.
The point of the exhibit, said Yaseen, was precisely to help Palestinians be seen as more than just statistics. “They’re human beings with dreams and hopes, and they’re being completely eradicated,” she said.
The traveling exhibit began earlier this year at Chicago’s Field Museum, where it was not censored. It’s on display at the ROM until April 7.
This article appeared in the 2023 Nov/Dec issue.
