CAN THE MUSEUM BE RECONCILED?

Breaking the Glass Case | Megan C. Mahon

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Good morning museum friends, and now it’s time for another issue of Here’s How Hard It Is To Decolonize Museums. Not to depress anyone at this late stage in the semester, but I wanted to talk about a trend I’ve been noticing among Canadian museums recently and ask a vital question: do we, as participants in this program, believe that the museum can be reconciled? Not simply decolonized, but reconciled?

Some might argue it’s an issue of semantics. But I believe that, in most cases, decolonization is something that follows reconciliation. In theory, once Canadian museums have reconciled with the Indigenous peoples on whose land they stand, they can continue, with their input, to decolonize the museum - that is, to reimagine and reorganize their content with justice and restitution in mind. However, I fear that “decolonization” is in danger of simply becoming another museum buzzword – a trend that quickly fizzles, rather than a way of operating that all institutions should be committing to for the future. Many Canadian museums are at risk of putting half an effort into their decolonization practices, by not putting reconciliation first. And that will involve a total re-imagination of what “the museum” actually is and should be.

The Royal BC Museum in Victoria, for example, has recently closed its third floor, citing the need to completely overhaul their exhibitions in the name of decolonization. The galleries prepped to close include the “Becoming BC” exhibition and the extremely popular Old Town (which depicts the city of Victoria as it would have looked in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries). They’re also going to close their First Peoples gallery, as they want to feature Indigenous stories that are not based in white settler stereotypes from 1886 (when the museum was founded).

 

The outside of the Royal British Columbia Museum. Source: Michael Klajban. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_British_Columbia_Museum

On the surface, this looks great. These galleries definitely need an overhaul - as Geoff Russ, a member of the Haida community and a Victoria resident, put it, the First Peoples gallery in particular “desperately needs input from Indigenous experts” before it can reopen. The other exhibits also need thorough examination to ensure that they explain history from more than one (white) viewpoint. No, I’m not against gallery overhauls. But I’m also not sure that this gets to the very root of the problem.

The reason the RBCM is making these changes is that past staff members have complained about “a culture of racism and discrimination.” The resignation of Lucy Bell, who had been the head of the Indigenous Collections and Repatriation department, sparked a third-party investigation into internal practices - the results of which were, apparently, “not good.” Put simply? It’s not only the galleries that need an overhaul.

Some artifacts of the First Peoples collection at the Royal BC Museum. Source: Wikimedia Commons. 

Museums are made up of people. While art, objects, and artifacts might be the public face of an institution, people make them run – and it’s the people, not the artifacts, that have to do the work of reconciliation. If the RBCM changes their exhibits and didactics, that’s great. But if the people who make those exhibits and didactics continue to participate in making the museum unsafe for Indigenous folks, then only the surface has changed. The colonial wound has not, in fact, healed at all.

It’s a similar story at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Following their own – oft-repeated and studied by students in this program – blunders, their CEO was fired. They’ve since spent over four thousand hours on employee training (don’t be racist! is it really that difficult?) and instituted Robert Greene as Indigenous Elder-In-Residence. But as new CEO Isha Khan has stated, disrupting the colonial standard in museums “takes really thoughtful and deliberate work and takes a long time.”

She’s right. For once, I have to think the CMHR is taking the right approach. It’s not about changing galleries - although that takes a lot of work, it can happen relatively quickly. Changing people won’t happen overnight.

However, that brings me to the question which is the crux of this article: is the museum too steeped in coloniality to ever be reconciled, no matter how much the people within them may change and grow?

Pondering this question led me to Sumaya Kassim’s famous article “The Museum Will Not Be Decolonized,” which I’m sure most people in this program have read. It details her experiences as a co-curator at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, creating an exhibition that examined the museum’s colonial history. Although her exploration into the history of the museum’s artifacts was fascinating, what’s more relevant to this discussion is her struggle with the overall structure of the museum. As she put it, white supremacy and coloniality are “so embedded in the history and power structures” of cultural institutions that she was doubtful about whether decolonization could ever be achieved. Museums are made by, for, and about white audiences. Before we can think about changing museums, we have to alter their entire structure and purpose.

I’m an eternal optimist: I believe that the museum can be reconciled and, eventually, decolonized. But I think that museums have to change their definition of what that means. For the Royal BC Museum, it means more than simply changing your galleries. For the Canadian Museum for Human rights, it means more than firing your CEO and conducting staff workshops. Of course, these things are all good (especially if your CEO does nothing to combat reports of racism), and they have their place in the reconciliation process. But they also fail to fundamentally disrupt the nature of the museum, which is, I think, the true way to reconcile and decolonize.

This has been a long, deep dive into what museums are doing – and not doing – that works to create safer environments for everyone and to reconcile with communities they have harmed in the past. My final point is that it must happen in layers: change the structure, change the people, change the artifacts. If everything I’ve learned in this program is true, it won’t happen quickly. All of us who work in museums will have to ensure that reconciliation is our primary focus. But, if the end result is safer and anti-colonial museum spaces, it will be worth it. And we aren't averse to hard work, are we?

NO KIDS ALLOWED!

Museum Innovations | Keelan Cashmore

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If you have visited a museum recently, chances are you’ve seen a wide variety of programs dedicated to patrons under the age of the 18. These could include mommy and me events, holiday programs, summer camps, and more. Museums are striving to become inclusive spaces that provide fun for the whole family.

While this is great for families, especially those with young children, what about patrons who would prefer a kid-free experience?

More and more museums are developing events and programs geared to this demographic.

The Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM) located in Victoria, British Columbia, holds four different types of adult only events.

One of the exhibits at the Royal British Columbia Museum. Source.

These are: night shift, grown-up camp, museum happy hour, and night at the museum.

Each event provides adults the chance to experience special programming designed just for them, free of children or underage teenagers.

Night shift is “an opportunity to visit the museum for an evening of presentations, live music, and exciting interaction with museum and community experts.” This event is held twice a year, on Halloween and New Years, and each event promotes a different theme.

Grown-up camp is defined as “a twist on nostalgic summer camp themes” and allows adults the chance to participate in either a day camp, or a sleepover camp, at the museum. This is a recurring event that takes places throughout the year.

Museum happy hour is an after-work event where adults can partake in new food and drink specials, explore the galleries, and take part in themed activities. Like grown-up camp, this is a recurring event throughout the year.

The final adults only event, is entitled Night at the Museum – Adults Only! This is a recurring sleepover camp strictly for those of legal age. Event activities include "food, drinks, and adventurous thematic-themed excursions throughout the museum.”

Each of these activities allows adults to get involved in the museum, while providing them with fun and entertainment. Who said kids are the only ones who should have entertaining programs?

This idea of adult only events has been picking up speed within the museum community. The Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) in Edmonton, Alberta, recently reopened, has also included adult only events in their programming with the development of “Evening at the Museum” where those 18+ can relax with food, drinks, music, and a relaxed atmosphere.

One of the exhibits at the Royal Alberta Museum. Source.

Traditional institutions are not the only places integrating adults only events. The Telus Spark in Calgary, Alberta, hosts their “Adult Only Night” once a month from 6:00pm-10:00pm. During this night, patrons receive free reign in the galleries, a fully licensed bar, a dance floor, more involved challenges, and innovative collaborators from around the community.

One of the exhibits at the Telus Spark. Source.

Some children’s museums are even partaking in the adults only trend. The Manitoba Children’s Museum, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, has launched a series of events entitled “Seriously Adult.” The event includes opening the museum after hours, providing a fully licensed bar, and special events such as comedy or trivia nights. It also allows the adults to fully interact with the exhibits without the worry of small children underfoot. Proceeds from these events are used to increase museum revenue, as they receive only 14% of their funding from the government. Lisa Dziedic, the museum’s Marketing Director, states that the return on the adults only events has been higher than those from fundraising galas, special event dinners, and golf tournaments (source).

The exhibit area at the Manitoba Children's Museum. Source.

Overall, it seems adults only events are taking the museum by storm! Not only are they providing adults with a chance to explore the museum without children underfoot, they are bringing revenue into the museum by providing this demographic with programming tailored specifically to them.

As an individual who falls within this demographic, I think adults only events are a fantastic way to provide patrons with a new way to experience museums, and I look forward to partaking in some of these events myself!

BANNOCK FOR BRUNCH: SONGHEES SEAFOOD & STEAM, VICTORIA, BC

A MUSE BOUCHE

BY: ERIKA ROBERTSON

If you visit Victoria, BC, you should definitely check out the Royal BC Museum’s Food Truck Festival. Unless, like me, your ferry departs at 10am and the festival doesn’t open for another hour. 

Next summer for sure. Photo by the author.

Luckily, the Songhees Seafood & Steam was conveniently located by the dock. Fresh bannock with house-made blackberry preserves hit the spot. It paired especially well with Resilience of the People, an exhibit at the Robert Bateman Centre and produced in partnership with the Songhees Nation.

Songhees Seafood & Steam is a collaboration between Songhees Nation Chief Ron Sam, Clipper Navigation, Inc., and Victoria chef David Roger. Their mission is “Food + Culture + Community. And really, really good food.” (source).  

This food truck is more than meets the eye. Photo by the author.

The truck is part of a movement to reclaim indigenous foodways. In Minneapolis, Tatanka Truck is reclaiming “aboriginal tacos” by replacing the fry bread with locally-available corn cakes. Both trucks have a social responsibility: to offer restaurant education and jobs to aboriginal people. They’re also revitalizing indigenous foodways through experimentation and education.

I grabbed my food truck brunch and boarded the boat. The sweet, crispy mouthful brought a wave of memories.

As a kid growing up in the Northwest, picking blackberries was one of my chores. The berries on my morning bannock were definitely the sweet and plentiful Himalayan variety, not the seedier native species. Himalayan blackberries are invasive to British Columbia and Washington state, where they were introduced by Europeans, much like me. 

Can confirm: really good food. Photo by the author.

Years ago, when I was an undergrad working at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, I fell into conversation with a Coast Salish carver. I can’t remember his name any more, but I remember the crinkle of his eyes when he smiled. At that age, I was in the first throes of white guilt. As a descendant of Scottish missionaries, I felt like I had no right to be there.

I must have seemed confused and apologetic because the man said something like, “You know bannock isn’t a First Nations word? The Scottish settlers recognized what we were making from their homeland.”  Fried carbs are a fairly global food, I thought. A lot of people find it comforting. His story bridged a divide for me. He revealed a history we had in common, in spite of historic and ongoing power imbalances.

A list of questions followed:

How did fry bread become associated with First Nations foodways?

According to Zoe Tennant, “originally a Scottish bread, brought here in the bellies of ships carrying fur traders and early settlers during the late eighteenth century, bannock—bannach in Scots Gaelic—was adopted and adapted by Indigenous nations across the country.” Read more of her interviews First Nations artists in Ontario here.

Where did the ingredients come from?

Some people call flour, milk, lard, salt, sugar, and baking powder the “five white gifts.” On reserves, they were government-issued survival foods. Find recipes and debate here.

What’s the difference between bannock and fry bread? 

I'm not sure, but the names might be regional. Or it may depend on whether the cook uses lard or not. If you know more, I'd love to hear from you. The Southern Foodways Alliance gives a perspective from “the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians” below:

The carver at MOA showed me what museums can create: an environment where hospitality and generosity can inspire curiosity and better understanding - a bit like sharing a meal. 

Whether you call it bannock or fry bread or avoid it altogether, it gave me an entry into the diverse experiences of indigenous people in North America.

If you have more to share, feel free to leave a comment or contact me.