Community engagement, Indigenous heritage and the complex figure of the curator: foe, facilitator, friend or forsaken?

Abstract

Curation is increasingly recognised as a profession of high standing which requires extensive higher education. However, the proliferation of community engagement since the 1980s has placed new pressures and expectations on curators, thus complicating their role. This is particularly evident in the case of ethnographic curators working with indigenous communities. This chapter explores these issues by considering the ways that working with Blackfoot First Nations communities have affected the role and work of curators at three key museums, two in Canada and one in the UK. Historically museums, and de facto their curators, were often seen as an enemy by many indigenous communities as they appeared as a physical manifestation of colonialism. The historical practice of collecting sacred cultural material, and even the bones and bodies of indigenous people, have made museums synonymous with sites of death, both physical and cultural. Yet, nowadays they also present an exceptional resource and opportunity to revive and re-invigorate pre-colonial cultural knowledge and practice through their collections. Consequently, curators often find themselves in the dubious position of being both potential foe and ally. This is complicated further when curators work cross-culturally and try to embrace both indigenous and western ways of working, as this chapter explores. It has been argued that curators have moved from the position of ‘expert’ to that of ‘facilitator’ but this oversimplifies the complexities of voice, accountability and power in the representation of culture. There is a need for a more nuanced understandings of the pressures community engagement places on the role of curatorship, especially in this current time of increasing expectations on engagement and decreasing resources to support museological work.

From connoisseur to the good manager. Perspectives in managerial curatorship from Canada and Brazil

“…160–161). In the UK, the decline in the number of curators in museums has led to concerns from the curator community on the need to raise public awareness on the important role of curatorial knowledge in museum activities and the communities they serve (Ewin & Ewin, 2016, Onciul, 2019, pp. 168–169; also Deuchar, 2016).…”

“…160-161). In the UK, the decline in the number of curators in museums has led to concerns from the curator community on the need to raise public awareness on the important role of curatorial knowledge in museum activities and the communities they serve (Ewin & Ewin, 2016, Onciul, 2019also Deuchar, 2016). In France, curators, or conservateurs du patrimoine, recently voiced their concerns about the future of state-legislated curatorship, denouncing greater administrative control and financial and personnel shortages, all to the detriment of curators who, they felt, were in a fragile and steep decline (Le livre blanc des mus ees de France, 2011).…”

Decoupling ‘Open’ and ‘Ethical’ Archaeologies: Rethinking Deficits and Expertise for Ethical Public Participation in Archaeology and Heritage

“…While the rise in participatory approaches is causing scholars to declare a shift in the role of the heritage professional from one of subject expert to expert mediator or facilitator (cf. Thomas 2004, Proctor 2010, Onciul 2019, research into perceptions of expertise tells a more complicated story, as several of the sources cited above also recognise. A survey conducted for the Profusion theme of the Heritage Futures research programme recently found that staff involved in collections development decisions in social history collections in the UK were divided on whether they felt members of the public should be involved in collecting and disposal decisions.…”

Co‐curation and New Museology in Reorganizing the Beit Gallery at the Mutare Museum, Eastern Zimbabwe

“…During the colonial period, museum curators were endowed with tremendous authority in configuring ethnographic objects thereby othering Indigenous knowledge systems. However, in the decolonial turn, the curator is no longer a lone expert and a voice of authority but rather a facilitator of community engagement and collaboration (McCarthy, Hakiwai, & Schorch, 2019; Onciul, 2019). Collaborations have therefore transformed ethnographic museums from being places that were once regarded as displaying ‘others’ to locations of cultural revitalisation, community voice and empowerment (Onciul, 2019, 160) (Figure 1).…”

“…In this regard, it can be further posited that museums especially in Africa are being challenged to give up on their authoritarian voice of control to allow communities to speak for themselves. Accepting source communities as experts and research partners can change the museum practice by opening up different ways of knowing and caring for the past (Onciul, 2019). Curatorship has thus evolved from being a strict specialised connoisseurship of individuals to a public service that attend to problems in contemporary communities (Schorch et al, 2019).…”