Facing Our Histories: Ethical Stewardship at the Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology

Résumé de la conférence

Anthropology museums must confront their role at the center of some of the most complex and challenging questions facing museums today. As European colonizers spread across the globe, their museums directly benefitted from collecting practices that alienated cultural heritage from their communities and promoted the view that their bodies and cultural items were repositories of data. Ethical stewardship of the collections requires the Peabody to confront these legacies that are embedded in how collections have been acquired, described, and used in exhibitions, teaching and research. The Museum must develop an institutional orientation toward transparent conversations with communities based in active listening, sharing authority, and commitment to collaboration. To begin to repair the harm caused and aim to provide space for healing and understanding, we need to approach communities with humility and privilege their wishes if we are to implement culturally responsive care and interpretation.