Sharing Authority in the Museum: Distributed objects, reassembled relationships (Museums in Focus)

by Horwood (Author), Michelle Horwood (Author), Michelle Horwood (Author)

• New

  Hardcover
  2018

  $61.24

  Who can access museum collections? What is the true legacy of ethnographic collecting for museums and what responsibilities does this legacy place on the current custodians of these collections for indigenous communities today? Indigenous Communities and Museum Collections addresses these issues by focusing on a detailed, situated New Zealand-United Kingdom case study, revealing the nuances of cross-cultural interactions across time and space to extend current debates on ethnographic collections in anthropology museums.

  This book provides the first contextualized study of a heritage assemblage, comprising a collector and his collection of ethnography, an indigenous community and a museum, over time, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Proposing a method for indigenous engagement and making recommendations when forging relationships based around indigenous cultural heritage, the book shows how to negotiate power and authority within these assemblages. By doing this and acknowledging and communicating our difficult histories, Horwood argues that we can move from collaborative approaches to shared authority and indigenous self-determination in the museum sphere and progress the task of decolonising the museum.

  Indigenous Communities and Museum Collections makes a unique contribution to the literature on museum-indigenous relationships and will appeal to academics and students in a broad range of academic disciplines, such as museum and heritage studies, anthropology, pacific studies, indigenous studies and cultural studies. It should also appeal to heritage professionals working in museums, libraries, archives and other cultural organisations.