10. Collecting Cultures: Canadian Missionaries, Pacific Islanders, and Museums

Lawson, Barbara; Austin, Alvyn J.; Scott, J.

doi:10.3138/9781442672253-012

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…They would bring Melanesian things with them as a material illustration of difference for European congregations whose donations were needed to support ongoing mission work. In other cases, directors of the new museums growing in various urban districts would ask missionaries to collect objects as evidence of the technology or culture of living 'Stone Age' peoples (Lawson 2005;Smith 2005). Directly or indirectly, objects from the New Hebrides wound up in Victorian museum collections, where they were displayed in a non-religious context but with the same purpose of displaying the inferior otherness of non-European peoples.…”

Section: Source: James Flexnermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The missionaries in return sent curios from the South Seas (Lawson 2005;Smith 2005). These collections tend to be among the earlier missionary collections held in Western museums.…”

Section: Terra Australis 44mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Robertson held at the Redpath Museum in Montreal is the most welldocumented of missionary collections from the New Hebrides (Lawson 1994a(Lawson , 1994b(Lawson , 2001(Lawson , 2005. The collection was a source of pride for the Redpath Museum, because of its rare, even unique sampling of Erromangan material culture, but also as an expression of a shift from Canada as a colonised culture to a colonising one (Lawson 1994a: 46-47, 153).…”

Section: Redpath Museummentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

An Archaeology of Early Christianity in Vanuatu

Flexner¹

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

terra australis 44Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.

show abstract

Section: Source: James Flexnermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The missionaries in return sent curios from the South Seas (Lawson 2005;Smith 2005). These collections tend to be among the earlier missionary collections held in Western museums.…”

Section: Terra Australis 44mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Redpath Museummentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An Archaeology of Early Christianity in Vanuatu

Flexner¹

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In addition to written accounts, missionaries often collected native objects as ''curiosities,'' which are preserved in museum collections (Lawson, 1994a(Lawson, , 1994b(Lawson, , 2001(Lawson, , 2005Smith, 1997Smith, , 2005. Ironically, museum collections housed outside of Vanuatu have provided one of the best sources of information on local material culture from the mission era, as many indigenous objects made of organic material do not usually preserve archaeologically.…”

Section: Primary Sources For the New Hebrides Missionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mission sites as indigenous heritage in southern Vanuatu

Flexner

Spriggs

2015

Journal of Social Archaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Christian missions are often characterized as a physical expression of Western colonial power, institutions that were resisted by indigenous people in various ways. In Vanuatu, while there was indeed dramatic resistance to mission incursion, the success of Christianity in many places (for not everyone converted) developed from a series of complex entanglements between indigenous Melanesians and Christian missionaries. This is apparent in oral traditions and in the physical remains relating to mission encounters. Indigenous ni-Vanuatu see the archaeological remains of mission sites as an integral part of their heritage, rather than as relics of a foreign colonial past. This tendency relates to other aspects of missionary heritage as well, including museum collections and sacred texts. The historical archaeology of missions in Vanuatu and beyond can be best understood through the lens of colonial entanglement, destabilizing categorical oppositions such as colonizer-colonized, foreign-indigenous, and power-resistance.

show abstract

The Royal Ontario Museum’s Asia-Pacific Collection

Myburgh

Zhang²

2019

relocations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Royal Ontario Museum’s Africa, Americas and Asia-Pacific collection boasts over 1,400 artifacts produced over a span of two thousand years. Located on the third floor of the museum, the collection comprises a range of material from global indigenous cultures. While there are many impressive objects housed within the collection, the amalgamation of these distinct geographic zones raises problems in the exhibition and display of these cultural artifacts. The singular nature of the narrative currently presented is the subject of this exhibition critique. We argue that an updated Asia-Pacific narrative inclusive of contemporary history would better reflect the complex history of local culture and artistic practice.

show abstract

10. Collecting Cultures: Canadian Missionaries, Pacific Islanders, and Museums

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

An Archaeology of Early Christianity in Vanuatu

An Archaeology of Early Christianity in Vanuatu

Mission sites as indigenous heritage in southern Vanuatu

The Royal Ontario Museum’s Asia-Pacific Collection

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About