Sara Relli

1 week ago | medium.com | Sara Relli |Ben Ulansey

And the ever-evolving questions it raisesControlling artworks — how they are displayed and explained — equates to controlling the story surrounding them. And controlling the story means controlling the past, and purifying it of any unwelcome details surrounding the acquisition of such artworks. “He who controls the objects controls the story,” Kiwara-Wilson writes.

2 weeks ago | medium.com | Sara Relli |Ben Ulansey

And what they tell us about the nature of imperialism and human greedIn the propaganda campaign preceding the British destruction of Benin City, the capital of the Kingdom of Benin, the city was labelled the “City of Blood”. The King of Benin, Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, “the Rising Sun which spreads over all”, was described as primitive, bloodthirsty, a worshipper of pagan gods and human sacrifices.

3 weeks ago | medium.com | Sara Relli |Ben Ulansey

How a West African city became one of the world’s wealthiest and best-governed capitalsBefore the British arrived in Benin City in 1897, before they looted its streets and houses, before they set fire to the royal palace and stripped the city of its wealth, autonomy, and prestige, Benin City was one of the world’s wealthiest and best-governed capitals.

1 month ago | medium.com | Sara Relli |Ben Ulansey

And what their stories tell us about the complexity of human relationships in New Zealand and elsewhereThe spiral motifs, curvilinear rays, and deeply grooved scars of moko, the traditional Māori facial tattoo, have mythical origins, rooted in the Eastern Polynesian culture and aesthetics that the ancestors of the men and women who became Māori brought with them when they landed on the shores of New Zealand’s North Island.

1 month ago | medium.com | Sara Relli |Ben Ulansey

A brief history of New Zealand’s “war” on Chinese and Indian immigrantsThe year was 1881, and New Zealand, a white nation for white citizens, a nation more British than Britain, was about to pass its first law restricting — and therefore discriminating against — the entry of a particular group of people. That group was the Chinese. But the Chinese were not the only group to be discriminated against. They were just the first.