Decolonizing Museums and Anthropology Karen Lacy, Museum Anthropologist Muse Curatorial Consulting Company

What is decolonization? It’s Complicated… Defined differently across disciplines Meaning changes

Roots of Decolonization Anthropology Acknowledgment of colonial roots Agency Empowerment of Indigenous Voice Museums Post NAGPRA emergence

Storytime Danger of a Single Story “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

Storytime “Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity”. -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Amy Lonetree a decolonizing museum practice must involve assisting (tribal) communities in addressing the legacies of unresolved grief  Past Present/Future Museums have represented frozen static cultures Held as elite temples Curatorial control Museums Inclusivity shift in contemporary museums Cultural Centers should address the legacies Museums as sites of decolonization Privileging indigenous voice Critical analysis of practices in museums

Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko Past Present/Future Museums hold the spoils of colonialism Hold up European cultures as the ideal Practices should be: from the beginning to the end-Collaborative Prioritizing and privilege: most histories are written by Truth telling To share authority

Abbe Museum https://www.abbemuseum.org/

Collaboration Matters The Minnesota Historical Society, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, and the Creation of a “Hybrid Tribal Museum” http://sites.mnhs.org/historic-sites/mille- lacs-indian-museum

Collaborations and Missed Opportunities Exhibiting Native America at the National Museum of the American Indian http://www.nmai.si.edu/

Decolonization, Truth Telling, and Addressing Historical Unresolved Grief The Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways http://www.sagchip.org/ziibiwing/

A Common misconception: Nagpra Decolonization What is NAGPRA? The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is a Federal law passed in 1990. NAGPRA provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items -- human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony -- to lineal descendants, and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. NAGPRA includes provisions for unclaimed and culturally unidentifiable Native American cultural items, intentional and inadvertent discovery of Native American cultural items on Federal and tribal lands, and penalties for noncompliance and illegal trafficking.

Decolonization For Me Exhibits Archaeology Consultations NAGPRA Basket Grant Inclusivity and Diversity

It started with a box…

Yurok Consultation  

Reading the object

Rites of Passage

Beerology

Parkology

Questions to ponder Is the only way to have true decolonization within museums is to have community controlled only? Do the hard truths of colonialism need to be unpacked? How can this be applied to all cultures? Why do we just focus on Native American groups?

Missteps in the Decolonization Process Marginalizing curatorial staff for political and financial gains Not utilizing anthropologists, archeologists, and curatorial staff to be a part of the process. Inherent biases of all involved Not recognizing others perceptions of you

“Decolonization” Perhaps this is the wrong term to use. Why is inclusivity and diversity not still the norm?

References Lonetree, Amy (2012) Decolonizing Museums : Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012. Danger of a Single Story https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_ story/transcript Clifford, J. (1988). “ On Ethnographic Authority ” in Predicaments of culture. Harvard: Harvard University Press. Erickson, Patrica Pierce and Janine Bowechop (2005)Voices of a Thousand People: The Makah Cultural and Research Center. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Henare, A., M. Holbraad & S. Wastell (2007). “Introduction” In Thinking through things: Theorizing artefacts ethnographically . (eds) A. Henare, M. Holbraad & S. Wastell, London: Routledge. Moutu, Andrew 2007). “Collection as a Way of Being” In Thinking through things: Theorizing artefacts ethnographically . (eds) A. Henare, M. Holbraad & S. Wastell, London: Routledge.