Review of First Nations, First Thoughts: The Impact of Indigenous Thought in Canada edited by Annis May Timpson (original) (raw)
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The struggle for Indigenous rights to self-determination has included the recognition that Indigenous peoples are stakeholders in the treatment of their cultural heritage within museums. Large public museums tasked with representing Indigenous heritage tend to support the principle of working with communities to create exhibits, but studies on specific practices are lacking. I address this problem by asking: “What does ethical collaborative practice look like in the context of museum exhibit creation?” My research falls under three themes: 1) the history of collaborative practice; 2) collaborative processes; and 3) exhibit design. I show that patterns of increased collaboration were influenced by larger trends in Indigenous rights movements, and introduce the term “Indigenous museology” to frame engagement between Indigenous peoples and museums. I have defined Indigenous museology as museum work done “with, by, and for” Indigenous peoples, whereby they are recognized as primary stakeholders in museological practices. This dissertation presents a broad overview of the development of Indigenous museology over time, while focusing on exhibit creation as a key practice. My fieldwork consisted of a multi-site ethnographic study at four large, public museums: the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii; the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories; the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Colorado; and the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, British Columbia. By exploring how these museums have engaged Indigenous peoples in exhibit creation, I found a variety of independent adoptions of similar principles. My results show that museums adopt a range of methods to engage communities, and that a “one-size-fits-all” practice for collaboration is impractical. Several patterns emerged that illustrate models for good practice. A preferred approach is to engage Indigenous peoples from the outset of projects. Even better is the involvement of Indigenous peoples as staff museum members working on interpretation. Techniques for effective design include storytelling, mobilizing “Native voice,” and programming that includes Indigenous peoples. Strong institutional mission and vision statements are also important. These ways of working are significant trends in museum practice. Finally, research on Indigenous museology illustrates how ethical, collaborative practices manifest and can be further developed within museums.
This thesis is intended to be a survey of three major Montréal museums each in possession of considerable collections of Indigenous material culture – the McCord Museum, the Redpath Museum, and the Pointe-à Callière Museum – with special emphasis on the first of these three. My goal is to evaluate the degrees and natures of Indigenous consultation, representation, and collaboration at work in each museum. Each of the three institutions houses Indigenous material procured from colonial contexts, and as such, it is the responsibility of each to initiate decolonization measures. I have chosen the McCord as my case study because, as I will be arguing, of the three museums, I think it has taken the most comprehensive steps towards decolonization. Through the hiring of Indigenous experts and collaboration with Indigenous communities and scholars on a meaningful scale, the McCord has demonstrated a real commitment to the project of decolonization. Compared to the “cabinet of curiosity” and nationalist attitudes on display at the Redpath and Pointe-à-Callière museums, the McCord emerges as the museum in Montréal with a colonial-era collection most demonstrably committed to decolonization and collaboration.
Displayed objects, indigenous identities, and public pedagogy
Anthropology & education quarterly, 2008
In this article, I describe how one group of student examines indigenous identity formation as dynamic and open to reinterpretation. Drawing on field observations and interviews with students in a 16-month ethnographic study, I examine how one group of students worked toward understanding how indigenous identity was determined by curatorial authority and historically defined museum practices. I argue that students can question the traditional pedagogical conceptions of indigenous culture that ought to be reconsidered within the public museum, and that working to historicize such conceptions makes more explicit student knowledge production of identity. [Indigenous, identity formation, pedagogy, public museums]
2012
In post-colonial nations such as Canada, sharing power and authorship is increasingly used as a strategy by museums to attempt to pluralise, democratise and decolonise relations with, and representations of, Indigenous peoples. While honourable in its intentions, the increasingly ubiquitous practice of community engagement in museums has been under analysed, and its difficulties and complexities understated. This thesis critically analyses engagement in museum and heritage practice and carefully unpicks the nuances of, and naturalised assumptions about, collaboration and self-representation. Power relations and their tangible manifestations in the form of exhibits, employment, relations, and new curatorial practices, are at the core of the analysis. Huge thanks must be given to my supervisorial team Dr Rhiannon Mason and Gerard Corsane, for their support, guidance, motivation and thoughts. Funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council made this research possible and an additional travel grant supported my time in the field. The Newcastle University department of ICCHS and my fellow PostGraduate Researchers provided me with a creative and enjoyable environment in which to develop as a researcher and produce this work. My friends have been as source of inspiration, support and energy, which has motivated and helped me continue on this journey. Special mention must go to Kevin Hill;
Indigenous Museum Curatorship in the United States and Canada: Roles and Responsibilities
Libri, 2020
Indigenous curatorship has become an increasingly visible presence in the public sphere as part of the long process of North American Native people's efforts to regain control over the representations and uses of their cultures in Western societies. Even though scholars consider this profession fundamental to Native American struggles for sovereignty, many do not have a clear understanding of what it involves. In the context of scarce scholarship on Indigenous curatorship, this qualitative study relies on interview and textual data to articulate Indigenous curators' understandings of their work of preserving and promoting Indigenous knowledge. It emphasizes the uniqueness of Indigenous curatorship by mapping out this profession's specific roles and responsibilities within the broader arena of museum curatorship. The study identifies two main directions Indigenous curators take in their work, namely activism and engagement of the public. Activism consists in Indigenous curators' efforts to critique oppressive knowledge structures, raise awareness of controversial topics of public interest related to Indigeneity, and support Native artists and tribal communities. Engagement of the public refers to Indigenous curators' strategies of involving source communities in the design of exhibits and diverse audiences in the interpretation of exhibitions.
Indigenous Pedagogies in University Museums: Becoming Decolonization-Ready
University Museums and Collections Journal, 2022
In this article, I consider what decolonization may mean within the university museum as a space of compounded Western authority and implicated in colonial processes through the representations and stories it shares; as well as the potential for transformation made possible there through the application of Indigenous research methods of self-location, storywork, and treaty. Here, I argue that by engaging with these methods in our pedagogical practices, museum-based teaching can participate in making us story-ready, bringing attention to both what and how we learn, and in turn helping to make the university decolonization-ready.
Indigenous Cultural Studies: Intersections Between Cultural Studies and Indigenous Studies
CSR Books is a book series initiated by the journal Cultural Studies Review, and published as an e-book by UTS e-Press with print-on-demand paperbacks also available. The series has two aims: to bring new work in the broadly conceived field of cultural studies to both current readers and new audiences, and to revisit themes or concerns that have preoccupied Cultural Studies Review since its inception.