Introduction: The first time I typed a record into a museum database, I didn’t realise I was participating in something so depersonalised. The object had a name, a number, and a date. Maybe the providence. Maybe a donor. All useful, yes. But cold. Lifeless. Devoid of emotion or sensory resonance. What’s almost always missing? Us! Our senses, Our memories, Our emotions, & Our humanity As someone working at the intersection of decolonisation, accessibility, and digital practice

This critique confronts the ethics of museum data, digitisation, and collections databases, exposing how efficiency, ownership, and authority are repeatedly prioritised over humanity. Through reflections on human remains, open access, and colonial legacies, it calls for slower, more intentional practices that centre care, dignity, consent, and community authority. It asks what happens when systems remember collectors, but silence people!