Cultural Heritage Terminology Network
Working to decolonise the language of the heritage sector
Welcome to CHTNUK
Founded by Carissa Chew in 2021, the Cultural Heritage Terminology Network promotes cross-institutional collaboration on inclusive description issues and open access to inclusive description resources. If you are looking for practical guidance on how to identify and address the presence of harmful imagery and discriminatory language across heritage collections, catalogues, websites, and exhibitions, you are in the right place!
Resources
CHTNUK is the home for inclusive description resources. Working on something new? Send it to us! It is essential that we share good practice and learn from one another, building on the inclusive description work that has already taken place in the cultural heritage sector. Whether it is cataloguing guidance, professional training opportunities, or examples of advisory notices and content filters that you are looking for, you will find it all on our resources page.
Inclusive Terminology Glossary
The Inclusive Terminology Glossary provides guidance on discriminatory and harmful language relating to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, and disability. You are welcome to use and contribute to this collaborative project, which is designed to help heritage professionals create accurate and inclusive metadata, exhibition text, advisory notices, and other resources.
Workshops & Services
Carissa Chew, the creator of the Inclusive Terminology Glossary and the founder of CHTNUK, works freelance as an Inclusive Metadata Consultant. She also offers online talks and workshops on topics related to inclusive cataloguing and reparative description. Find out more or make an enquiry here.
Latest on the Blog
The Inclusive Terminology Glossary’s Inclusion of Palestine: A Statement by Carissa Chew
On 19th January 2024, The Telegraph published an article about the Inclusive Terminology Glossary titled “Taxpayer-funded charity shares guidance that calls Hamas freedom fighters’,” which misleadingly suggested that Collections Trust had funded my resource. In its attempt to stir up hatred, the right-wing newspaper falsely claimed that the Glossary “calls Hamas freedom fighters”, omitting sections where the guidance condemns the 7th October attacks as well as the entry’s citations from the Jewish-led heritage organisation The Promised Land Museum: The Jewish Museum of the Palestinian Experience. Setting me up for accusations of anti-Semitism, moreover, the article did not mention the fact…
Translation of the Inclusive Terminology Glossary into Welsh: An Interview with Catalena Angele
At the beginning of 2023, People’s Collection Wales (PCW) and Amgueddfa Cymru worked together to co-ordinate the translation of sections of the Inclusive Terminology Glossary into Welsh. In this interview, Catalena Angele reflects on the importance of the glossary as a resource for PCW and the process and practicalities regarding its translation, with the hope that this might inspire other organisations and communities to take on this work in different languages. Catalena is a Learning Officer for People’s Collection Wales, an online community archive dedicated to bringing together Wales’ heritage. Why was it important for People’s Collection Wales to translate the Inclusive Terminology Glossary into…
Joining the Cultural Heritage Terminology Network on Mastodon
Mastodon is a social media platform that is similar to Twitter, but it is de-centralised, meaning it isn’t subject to the whims of a billionaire and is ad-free. Just like Twitter, you can share 500 character posts, “retoot” other people’s posts, tag others using the @ symbol, use hashtags, and send direct private messages. You can also adjust the privacy setting for each individual post that you make. Mastodon consists of a number of different servers (called “instances”), which can all connect to one another. Each server has its own moderators and its own rules. When you sign up, you…
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