Dr. Phillips presents at the OU Online Conference

MST 5403 Museums & Indigenous Communities

This course helps students to challenge and dismantle ongoing structures of colonialism inherited in museums to understand relationships between museums and Indigenous Nations. The content is equally relevant to students interested in libraries, archives and galleries [GLAM]. We will draw on resources found in a variety of media, critical resources and experiential learning opportunities. We will engage our unique positionalities to find ways to work towards futures that center the needs of Indigenous Nations. We will look at how our work in the GLAM sector can challenge (rather than perpetuate) colonialism, colonial violence, and ongoing attempts at Indigenous erasure.

We will investigate museums as enacting ‘scopophilic’ desires, as explained by Metis scholar, artist, curator David Garneau (2016):

The colonial attitude is characterized not only by scopophilia, a drive to look, but also an urge to penetrate, to traverse, to know, to translate, to own and exploit.

The attitude assumes that everything should be accessible to those with the means and will to access them; everything is ultimately comprehensible, a potential commodity, resource, or salvage.

The academic branch of the enterprise collects and analyses the experiences and things of others; it transforms story into text and objects-in-relation into artifacts to be catalogued and stored or displayed. (23)

Scopophilia names the actual practice that museums are founded on, and continue to enact daily – seeing these actions defined, as a condition, affliction or affectation helps us to understand where so many museums find themselves today - storage facilities jammed with countless (and repetitive) examples of objects, specimen, belongings. Scopophilic desires are very strongly tied to the ordering, naming and structuring that the Euro- Enlightenment way of seeing the world promotes.

This course will focus on moving beyond this foundation to understand new ways forward, with emphasis on using the words shared by Indigenous scholars, curators, artists and other cultural mediators.

The activities, content, and assignments in this course will guide your learning process to ensure you can:

• Describe the changing roles of museums in the representing Indigenous (Native American) exhibitions and collections.
• Explain the differences between the goals and objectives of museums founded on Euro-centric principles and Indigenous-run museums / cultural centers.
• Compare and contrast how different eras of curatorship have represented Indigenous arts and cultures.
• Understand the impacts of United States laws on Indigenous arts and cultures.
•  Understand effective ways for museums to collaborate with Indigenous artists and creators.
• Understand processes for museums to responsibly, respectfully and accurately represent Indigenous Nations and cultures.
• The Student Learning Outcomes [SLOs] are useful for museum professionals, including using this experience to:
• Apply course concepts to contemporary contexts
• Students will be able to connect weekly readings and themes to current exhibits, media, and cultural discussions, demonstrating the relevance of course materials beyond academic texts.
• Critically evaluate diverse sources of knowledge
• Students will assess and interpret podcasts, exhibits, blogs, and other non-academic sources, recognizing their role in shaping societal understandings of Indigenous communities, museums, and archives.
• Communicate ideas effectively using multimodal formats

Students will develop and deliver a concise, engaging presentation (Pecha Kucha or podcast discussion) that integrates visual and/or audio materials with clear oral explanation.

• Facilitate critical dialogue with peers
• Students will design and pose discussion questions that encourage collaborative analysis, critical thinking, and peer-to-peer engagement around course themes.
• Demonstrate academic integrity and respectful representation

Students will use appropriate references, avoid harmful or offensive content, and present Indigenous perspectives and museum practices with cultural awareness and ethical responsibility.

The Assignment:

This assignment adds audio / visual illustrations of the weekly content, themes and readings and gives students the opportunity to bring in specific content that is of interest to them or that students want to learn about in more detail (for example, an exhibit that is mentioned in the text, or a contemporary exhibit that touches on similar themes).

Podcasts, exhibits, blogs, social media, you tube content – all of these formats present contemporary and current discussions that include perspectives formed outside of academic realms. These are important sources of the societal contexts that are important additions to the topics discussed in this course.

Option 1: a 5 minute “Pecha Kucha” presentation

For our purposes, I define this as 3-5 slides that show ONLY visuals (a current exhibit, art, anything at all relating to the Indigenous communities, Nations and their engagement with museums, archives) that relate to the weekly theme/ readings. This can illustrate something mentioned in the readings - for example, an exhibition, event, artist, etc.

• In addition to the 3-5 visuals you can have 1 title slide, 1 slide with 3 questions to inspire your group discussion, and a slide (or slides) for your references.
• Your main slides should only be visuals that you speak to during your presentation.

OR

Option 2: Play a 3-5 minute clip from a podcast or youtube video/movie etc.

In addition to the clip you play, include a 3-5 minute discussion to share a brief explanation of how the clip relates to the weekly theme/readings.

• Please include 1 title slide, 1 slide with 3 questions to inspire your group discussion, and a slide (or slides) for your references.

Additional important points to note about this assignment:

• Students generate their own group discussions
• Most of the students in our program are working professionals, juggling multiple responsibilities with competing priorities
• The groups have four weeks to complete their discussions
• Students get to do three of these in three different groups over the term, thus enabling them to apply feedback, to embed new learning and to gain inspiration from their peers.

The rubric for this assignment assesses the depth of their research, their choice of visuals, the level of engagement with course themes, respectful representation and cultural sensitivities, clarity of narrative and the overall formatting and style of the presentation.

References:

https://practicalpie.com/david-kolb/

https://practicalpie.com/experiential-learning-definition-examples/

Garneau, David. 2016. “Imaginary Spaces of Conciliation and Reconciliation: Art, Curation, and Healing.” In Arts of Engagement: Taking Aesthetic Action In and Beyond the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, edited by Dylan Robinson and Keavy Martin. Wilfred Laurier University Press.