Narratives and Silences: Nation-building in the Central State Museum of Almaty

Abstract

The Central State Museum of Almaty plays a key role in shaping public understandings of Kazakhstan’s past and present, yet its curatorial strategies and narrative choices remain understudied within heritage scholarship. This article applies a critical museological analysis to examine how the Central State Museum of Almaty constructs, organizes and legitimizes narratives of Kazakh identity. Through content analysis, spatial reading and attention to silences, we explore how state heritage interpretation contributes to contemporary nation-building in Kazakhstan. Drawing on on-site observational research conducted during museum visits, the authors analyse how the exhibition foregrounds themes of ethnogenesis, tradition and sovereignty while downplaying or omitting alternative histories and contentious episodes of the Soviet period. By juxtaposing what is made visible with what remains unspoken, the article highlights the political work of museum curation in shaping collective memory. However, the museum’s portrayal of national identity as a coherent, stable trajectory—rather than a negotiated and dynamic process—may fail to resonate fully with the complexities of local identities and everyday experiences. The findings contribute to broader debates on postcolonial heritage, memory politics and the role of cultural institutions in constructing national identity in Central Asia.

Keywords

Central state museum critical museology identity Kazakhstan nation-building on-site observations

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