68. The Akomawt Educational Initiative Forges a Snowshoe Path to Indigenize Museums
Special guest endawnis Spears (Diné/ Ojibwe/ Chickasaw/ Choctaw) joins the show to discuss her work as co-founder and director of programming and outreach at the Akomawt Educational Initiative.
In this episode, Spears talks about the difference between living culture and sterile museum artifacts, how Native narratives are violently presented through a white lens in museums, and the potential for museums to disrupt that for many visitors.
"When we go into museums, we see items that have a lived relationship with us, and we see them on display as ethnographic objects. That is a reminder that our understanding of our own material culture is not the one that is important." -- endawnis Spears
Learn More
Past and future guest Sanchita Balachandran introduced me to endawnis Spears. Both Balachandran and Spears presented as panelists at Untold Stories 2019: Indigenous Futures and Collaborative Conservation. Find the full video of the event, including the presentation slides and documents, here.
Club Archipelago 🏖️
One of the questions I ask Spears in this episode is about how interactive media in museums presenting privileged information only to Nation-members. Look for a further explanation of this topic in episode 9 of Club Archipelago, Coding What's Sacred. Join Club Archipelago today to get access to this and all Club Archipelago episodes.