Remembering Stories Main Menu What is a decolonized museum? Mission Statement Students in American Studies 1906I Confronting Lost Belongings Twelve Stories to Remember “To try and hold a Soul”: A Cradle from Kiowa peoples by Alyxandra Todich'ii'ni Lawson Cree Jacket: Evolution and Lost History By Arthur Sun Diné Diyogí: Inspirations and Creations By Kara Roanhorse Haida Ladle: Haida Nationhood and Survivance By Sierra Edd Haungoah Hide Painting and the Recording of Culture: Beyond Art History By Axel Getz Lakota Spirituality in Translation: The Art and Life of an Elk Dreamer’s Society Dance Shield by Asante Crews Navel Amulet: Challenging Paradigms of Repatriation by Maria Camila Arbelaez Octopus Bag: Athapaskan Women in the Colonial Encounter By Yang Guo Ojibwe Velvet Vest By Edward Li Sled Dog Blanket By: Stella Chong Tohono O'odham Plaque: Cultural Preservation and Survivance by Daniel Motley Woman's Hood: Eastern Cree Memory and Resistance by Jeanelle Wheeler Suggested Readings Contributors

Remembering Stories

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              In January of 2018 twelve students and one professor from Brown University joined together to study the living legacy of colonialism in anthropology museums.  Academic institutions, in the U.S. and in many countries of the world, house aging collections of objects that once belonged to Indigenous communities, collections accumulated by colonizers during periods of conflict with and violence toward Indigenous peoples. 
             Our work began with a study of academic literature on early collectors, their relationship to the emerging discipline of anthropology, their museums, and case studies of recent curatorial attempts to work more collaboratively and compassionately with source communities, to address colonial legacies within their hallowed institutions, and to move museums from temples to forums. 
             We then visited nine museum sites in the U.S. and Taiwan, four affiliated with universities, three run directly by the national government, and one run entirely by an Indigenous community.  We engaged deeply with these sites, closely reading labels, analyzing the arrangements and contexts of objects and the categories used to define them for the public.  We spoke with curators, anthropologists, guides, and directors—and we listened to Native voices.
             Finally, we returned from fieldwork to construct this website, which for us best gestures toward an anti-colonial approach* to representing the personal belongings bought, “gifted,” or stolen from Native American communities with the purpose of educating a White public. In what follows we have each chosen a living artifact within Brown’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology to “listen to.”   ~ Caroline Frank
                                                (Image: Tohono O'odham Plaque with man-in-the-maze design.)

Contents of this path:

  1. What is a decolonized museum?
  2. Mission Statement
  3. Confronting Lost Belongings
  4. Suggested Readings
  5. Contributors