Abstracts
Abstract
Since the 1980s, museum professionals have increasingly committed to sharing collections with the descendants of people and communities from whom the collected artifacts originated. As late as the 1970s, Indigenous people were not considered stakeholders in the collection and exhibition of their own cultural artifacts. Recently, however, exemplary cases of collection sharing have occurred in North American and European museums. Museums have become “contact zones” as issues of decolonization have come to the fore. This article discusses the sharing of material culture and “double” position of anthropological museums, rooted in their own (colonial) history but in possession of another’s culture. Ownership issues, access, and ethics are important for local communities but not always easy for museums to negotiate. This article describes thirteen examples of collaborative partnerships between museums, for the most part large, urban, European, postcolonial institutions, and Arctic Indigenous communities. I argue that open communication, collection research, and an increasing level of co-curation are prerequisites for changes in museum practice, and these changes will benefit both the institutions and the communities involved.
Keywords:
- Museum collections,
- Arctic communities,
- Inuit cultural heritage,
- power imbalance,
- decolonization,
- cooperation,
- material culture
Résumé
Depuis les vingt dernières années, les conservateurs des musées se sont de plus en plus engagés à partager les collections avec les descendants des peuples et des communautés dont elles sont originaires. L’histoire des collections et la documentation des relations avec les communautés autochtones concernées montrent qu’à la fin des années 1970, les portes de la plupart des musées étaient fermées aux Peuples autochtones. Depuis, cependant, les choses se sont bien améliorées aux États-Unis et au Canada, les musées devenant des « zones de contact » où la décolonisation constitue une priorité. Dans cet article, je discute du partage de la culture matérielle et de la « double » position particulière dans laquelle se trouvent les musées. Les questions de propriété et d’éthique sont très importantes pour les communautés locales et ne sont pas toujours évidentes pour les musées. Une comparaison entre un cas difficile des années 1970 (l’exigence, de la part du gouvernement groenlandais, que les Pays-Bas lui restituent des restes humains présumés inuit) et les développements récents d’une coopération accrue entre les musées et les communautés arctiques peut projeter un nouvel éclairage sur ce sujet controversé.
Mots-clés:
- Collections muséales,
- communautés arctiques,
- patrimoine culturel inuit,
- inégalité de pouvoir,
- décolonisation,
- coopération,
- culture matérielle
Appendices
Appendices
References
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