EQUIP MUSEUMS WITH INDIGENOUS VOICES

Heritage Moments | Jingshu Yao

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June is National Aboriginal History Month. While most heritage events were cancelled due to the pandemic, long hours staying indoors also gave me the chance to research about all the Indigenous museums and historical sites in Canada. A handful of museums and galleries are dedicated to Indigenous history and arts, and many larger museums include Indigenous culture sections in their general exhibitions. Following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, museums have played a role in Indigenous culture education and revitalization. The narrative voice, representation, and languages used in the exhibitions are important factors that help facilitate their missions.

Aboriginal Cultures in North American (Source)

Sarah Carr-Locke states in Indigenous Heritage and Public Museums: Exploring Collaboration and Exhibition in Canada and the United States that the lack of collaboration between museums and Indigenous communities could result in exhibitions with the privileged perspective of museum staff rather than that of Indigenous people. Through a case study on four museums across North America, Carr-Locke suggests that museums could address this problem by using first-person narration by the specific Indigenous community members they work with through the exhibition and hiring more Indigenous staff to make sure the voice has the right representation.

Using the case of the National Museum of the American Indian, Carr-Locke emphasized the value of the presence of Native voices. This can be demonstrated by using first-person quotations and the use of Aboriginal language, like in this title in the exhibition: “Niitsitapiisini: Our Way of Life”.

Indigenous Art, Royal BC Museum (source) 

Language is considered an important part of culture since it carries all the stories and traditions, which have no equivalent in any other language. The exhibitions where languages are treated the same as an ancient artifact might not be helpful for Indigenous culture revitalization. While language documentation provides the necessary resources for language revitalization, the two should not be considered the same, as the latter requires the engagement of both researchers and potential speakers.

The exhibition “Our Living Languages” at the Royal BC Museum was a good example of language education at museums. “Our Living Languages” not only displayed 34 Indigenous languages spoken in British Columbia and the history they connected with but also introduced an online learning portal that transformed visitors into learners. The website continued to be available and was updated regularly even after the exhibition ended in 2017. 

Royal BC Museum (source)

Traditionally, language education is the responsibility of schools and community centres. However, museums have the advantage of reaching a larger range of audiences and can become a complement to other institutions. In Lucy and Lola, a children's book for Indigenous culture education, the 11-year-old twin sisters with Snuneymuxw origin learned about their Indigenous identity by going to an exhibition about residential schools with their mother and kookum (grandmother). While the adults recalled their tragic memories by looking back at the past, they recognized it as an opportunity to reconcile and move forward. Even though the characters in the novel are fictional, many families might be longing for such an opportunity, and museums are well-positioned to offer them the chance. 

With new developments in technology, the methods in which the museum can engage in language teaching have multiplied. Aside from interactive exhibitions, online platforms and cell phone apps can also be helpful for language and culture education. In addition, museums could use Indigenous languages in exhibition descriptions or with virtual tour guides in general exhibitions. The best way to keep languages alive is to use them in daily life.

IS SEEING BELIEVING? ON THE ADVENTURE(S) OF IMAX IN THE MUSEUM

MUSEUM MONDAYS

BY: MAYA DONKERS

As the light rain turned to downpour, visitors ran to join the line-up forming inside the Royal BC Museum. It was 3-days until Christmas, and the next showing of The Polar Express in IMAX was set to begin in 30 minutes.

Welcome back to Museum Mondays, Musing’s readers! Our first week back in the MMSt classrooms were filled with the chatter of students reminiscing about the holidays and the museums that they visited. Much to my (secret) humiliation, the only museum I visited over the winter break was the Royal BC Museum.

But wait - the RBCM is certainly a museum, and isn't it a great one to visit? Not when the only reason I went to the museum was to see The Polar Express in IMAX.

Do you believe? Still from The Polar Express. (Source).

The emergence of IMAX as a form of scientific spectacle has been said to be more than “smart marketing” for science centres and museums. According to Dr. Joanna Ploeger, “To provide science as entertainment can be to promote a seductive yet distancing rhetoric for relations between science and society… it packages science as an object for the pleasure of paying audiences.” Although IMAX was placed in museums to contribute to the development of science education, the trouble remains that if a museum or science centre relies on IMAX to build patronage, it can ultimately produce spectators rather than participants within the greater museum context. 

Does IMAX in the museum exist to educate or to entertain? In recent years, IMAX has created desire for the museum as a destination for entertainment by playing major blockbuster films. In my opinion, here-in-lies the question: is IMAX attracting a museum-invested audience or a movie-going crowd? 

IMAX at the RBCM. (Source).

Here is what is currently on show at IMAX:

1. Spectre

2. Bears

3. Antartica

4. Pandas

5. Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey

6. Alaska: Spirit of the Wild

7. Van Gogh

Coming soon:

1. Humpback Whales

2. Galapagos

3. America Wild

4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

IMAX's four faces of 'edutainment'. (Source).

Here is what is currently on exhibition at RBCM:

1. Wildlife Photographer of the Year

2. Our Living Languages

3. Permanent Galleries

Coming soon:

1. Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age

2. British Columbia’s Species at Risk

3. Permanent Galleries

Join this admission line for museum-entrance only. (Source).

Do you see any crossover(s) between IMAX showings and the exhibitions?

IMAX might be an "immersive" technology, but that does not mean its interactive. In fact, it has been argued as being nothing more than a passive experience for most viewers. As the IMAX experience requires no actual engagement with the given subject of the film, I suggest that there is little difference between seeing Antartica or Spectre, since the viewer remains as removed from the nature film as the blockbuster.

The IMAX Victoria webpage describes the movie-going experience as, “You’ll be surprised at how much you can learn while being entertained.” Although this seems to be the key feature of IMAX, I remain unconvinced that visitors to IMAX are also encouraged to be active participants to the museum.

I don’t have any answers to my musings, I leave that up to your thoughts on the topic in the ‘comments’ section below. All I know is that I waited in line for a sold-out show of The Polar Express, while a total of five visitors walked up to the empty admissions desk to purchase entrance into the museum.