Contributors
Stella Chong. I am first-generation college student from a low-income, Malaysian-Chinese immigrant family in New York. I am a senior concentrating in Anthropology and Health & Human Biology. I aspire to pursue a career in community health in order to address the social determinants of health and to achieve health equity in marginalized communities. I chose to concentrate in Anthropology because I am interested in hearing people’s narratives. I believe that everyone has a story - one that is unique to themselves and constructed by history, culture, and living experiences. For this reason, I decided to take this course, Decolonizing Museums to understand how ethnographic objects can tell a narrative of their own, reflect the voices of the unheard, and to ultimately honor and celebrate Indigenous survival.
Sierra Edd. I am a Diné (Navajo) student at Brown University concentrating in Ethnic Studies. As a Mellon Mays fellow, I have research interests in border theory, anti-colonial studies, and Indigenous studies, with a project investigating racial violence in border-town communities on the Navajo reservation. I grew up in a borderland, living with my Diné community yet existing on the cusp of reservation and broader society. This world in the borderland also describes where I stand as a student often feeling divided between my Diné homeland while attending an elite institution. With this in mind, I have worked to challenge colonialism and the erasure of Indigenous peoples with my work in this class. I have approached this class and writing my object biography using an interdisciplinary framework to center Indigenous resistance in remembering.
Axel Getz. I am a senior studying archaeology and environmental studies. Always interested in the management of heritage, I was impressed and challenged when coming to terms with the complicated relationships between museums and indigenous people. Although I believe these institutions have a ways to go until they can be considered decolonized, A remain hopeful that one day the trauma created by museums will be addressed appropriately and maybe one see these spaces become places of healing.
Daniel Motley. I am a sophomore at Brown University studying Ethnic Studies and Public Policy. I am also a citizen of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona. In my short years at Brown, I have taken a huge interest in transnational Indigeneity. As someone who comes from a Native American tribe whose traditional lands exist in the United States and Mexico, being in this class has been extremely important for me. I have used my own experiences and the knowledge that I have gained from this course in order to critically analyze Indigenous focused museums with an open mind.
Kara Roanhorse. I am Diné from the reservation community To’hajiilee, NM. I am a senior studying Ethnic Studies with a focus on Critical Indigenous Theory and Politics, specifically environmental justice, social media activism, and tribal-federal policy as it pertains to Native Youth. As a Mellon Mays fellow, my senior thesis aims to highlight Native Youth, social media and technology, and developments for social change. I am interested in how Native Youth embody survivance (renouncement of tragedy and victimhood) and the ways we actively resist the efforts of oppressive structures online and beyond. I also hope to speak to the truths of my own journey and lived experiences, and address my identities and privileges as a Diné woman attending an Ivy League institution. My Diné teachings will be my compass and grounding for this work as I continue to grow in knowing what decolonization genuinely means for Native youth and future generations, beyond scholarly and activist definitions, and not as a metaphor. I humbled to be able to study and live upon the lands of the Wampanoag and Narragansett peoples, particularly as I reflect on settler colonialism, Indigenous (Diné) understandings, and my people’s diyogí (rug) making.
Yang Guo. I am a senior at Brown University concentrating in East Asian History. I grew up in Beijing, China and lived in Vancouver, Canada before coming to Brown. I have been a part of Brown University Strait Talk for 3 years, a youth-led grassroots initiative that advocates a peaceful future across the Taiwan Strait. Throughout my Strait Talk experience, I became increasingly interested in the process of identity formation in Taiwan, and how political and historical factors influence and mold individual and collective memories and identities. As a global citizen with various national backgrounds myself, I empathize with Taiwan's struggle of constructing a cohesive national narrative while piecing together different eras of its colonial history. In "Decolonizing Museums", I explored Taiwanese history through the Indigenous peoples' narrative and deconstructed many of my own prejudices and misconceptions. Our current societies are the products of exploitative colonial histories. We need to always remind ourselves of these histories of violence and exploitation and view our social institutions using such a critical gaze. I hope this virtual museum is a first step among many steps in the effort to gradually decolonize more spaces and institutions within our societies. With this new perspective and understanding of Taiwanese history, I also hope to further my contribution to cross-strait conversation and collaboration.
This page has paths:
- Remembering Stories Caroline Frank
