Ethnographic museums and collections: from the past into the future

The 1978 UNESCO Regional Seminar on the Role of Museums in Preserving Indigenous Cultures, held in Adelaide, [1] marked a turning point in the relationship between Indigenous communities and the museum sector in Australia, as well as in Oceania between Pacific Island nations and the museums of Australia and New Zealand. It demanded Indigenous representation throughout the museum world – in collections, at senior management level and on boards of trustees. The UNESCO seminar spawned an immediate response from curators of Indigenous collections in the region, with representatives of communities and museums from Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand joining their Australian counterparts at the Conference of Museum Anthropologists held in Melbourne the following year.

Please find the entire article here from Understanding Museums: Australian Museums and Museology.

Regarding Human Remains

A fascinating history-cum-dialogue about the shifting norms of collecting and displaying human remains in England and Australia.

Participants include: Dr. Lisa O'Sullivan (Senior Curator of Medicine, The Science Museum), Dr. Tiffany Jenkins (British sociologist working on a book called Contesting Human Remains; Museums and the Crisis of Authority), Simon Chaplin (Director of Museums & Special Collections, Royal College of Surgeons of England), and Lissant Bolton (Section Head, Oceania Oceanic collections, British Museum)

Directorship Open: Anthropology Museum at the University of Queensland

From a University of Queensland email circular:

Applications are invited for the position of Director of the Anthropology Museum at The University of Queensland. The appointment is part of the University’s initiative to promote the Museum nationally and internationally in the areas of public exhibition, community engagement, research and teaching.

The Role The successful applicant will be an advocate for the Museum and its collection, and will supervise new engagements with potential funding bodies and supporters of appropriate public exhibitions. The Director will be responsible for managing the collection, liaising with the University and relevant community groups to initiate research projects, and building the public profile of the collection through digital and related technologies.

The Person The successful applicant will possess a higher degree in anthropology, archaeology, museum studies, or related fields. Experience with collections and/or related research activities in Aboriginal Australia and/or Melanesia and the broader Pacific is highly desirable.

Learn more about the position here.

Anthropology Position at the Australian Museum

DASR – Department of Arts, Sport & Recreation
Australian Museum

MANAGER, ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURE. Scientific Officer Grade 4/5, Permanent Full-time. Job Ref:.AM411 Total remuneration package valued up to $102,074 p.a. Including salary ($82,244 – $92,500), employer’s contribution to superannuation and annual leave loading.

The purpose of this position is to provide leadership for the Anthropology and Culture Unit in both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage areas.

Selection criteria: High level experience in Anthropology and Culture as well as management of cultural collections, preferably in a leadership role. Experience in working with Indigenous communities. Expert knowledge of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage issues including intellectual property and traditional knowledge issues. Strategic thinking and planning skills of a higher order, particularly in relation to forging new partnerships and implementing policies and strategies. High level financial, project management, staff management, negotiation skills and problem solving skills to resolve conflicting views. Ability to lead a team and be part of a team. High level communication skills, written and spoken, especially at a senior level with Museum administrators, researchers and public sector agencies. Tertiary qualifications in Anthropology or a related discipline.

Notes: Permanent appointment to the NSW Public Service is also subject to the applicant being an Australian citizen or permanent resident and a period of 6 months probation may apply if the successful applicant is appointed from outside of the NSW Public Service. Verification of Qualifications is a requirement.

Inquires: Vinod Daniel on (02) 9320 6115 or email vinod.daniel@austmus.gov.au

Information Pack Access information packages at www.australianmuseum.net.au

Applications Marked ‘Confidential’ To: Human Resources Officer, Human Resources Unit, Australian Museum, 6 College St, SYDNEY NSW 2010, or email hr@austmus.gov.au

Closing Date: Friday 10 October 2008

Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari Archive Online

MUA Editorial Board Member and author Kim Christen and her collaborators have just gotten the website in support of the Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari archive project up and running. Among its features is a great web video showing how the system work. Learn more here. Congratulations to the whole project team.

Kim Christen Guest Blogging on Savage Minds

Incoming CMA Board Member and Museum Anthropology contributor Kim Christen is currently guest blogging on Savage Minds. Her most recent post is of special relevance to museum anthropologists and I urge Museum Anthropology weblog readers to check it out here. Her posts are arriving during a busy period of discussion in anthropology on numerous wide-angle issues (such as the HTS program), but I urge readers to follow up with her earlier Savage Minds posts on the current political crisis in indigenous Australia. They are smart (as always) and very eye opening.

Words and Images from Tennant Creek: "Following the Nyinkka" Extended

Kim Christen has posted an audio file (of interview excerpts from her discussions with Michael Jampin) as well as a color slide show to her blog Long Road. As discussed in an earlier post on her blog and here, Michael Jampin's self-portrait appears on the cover of the latest issue of Museum Anthropology--the issue in which Kim's article "Following the Nyinkka: Relations of Respect and Obligations to Act in the Collaborative Work of Aboriginal Cultural Centers" appears (30(2)). Thanks to Kim for her article, these enhancements, and for her service on the Museum Anthropology editorial board. Thanks also to Kim's friends and co-workers in Tennant Creek for their good efforts building up the kind of collaborative museum work that Kim describes in her fine paper.

Following the Nyinkka: See the Color Pictures!

On her blog, Kimberly Christen has posted some color pictures to supplement her paper in the new issue of Museum Anthropology. Included among the pictures that she has posted is the issue's cover image in color--Michael Jampin Jones' self portrait--as well as a photographs of the artist and and of the Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre, the subject of her paper.

Thanks Kim!

Supporting Aboriginal Art Centres

Kimberly Christen, whose article on the Nyinkka Nyunyu Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre appears in current issue of Museum Anthropology, is currently back in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia, where she is continuing her collaboration with Warumungu community members. On her own weblog Long Road, she has been chronicling local and regional responses to recent Australian national policy proposals that, if enacted, will dramatically effect life in Aboriginal communities. In a detailed post published today, Kim considers the impact of these changes on Aboriginal art centres, describes the way that Aboriginal artists and cultural workers are mobilizing, and suggests steps by which those who support local Aboriginal self-determination can lend a hand. Kim's postings from Tennant Creek are a rich addendum to her valuable article.

Transient Languages and Cultures

Australia is clearly a center of a great deal of interesting activity in ethnographic museums and archives. Transient Languages and Cultures is a rich blog centered at the University of Sydney that is associated with the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC). The blog's most recent post offers an account by Barry Craig of recent developments in the Pacific Galleries at the South Australia Museum. PARADISEC is one more bit of evidence (following on other projects featured in Museum Anthropology and this blog), that much can be learned by tracking developments in Australia.

Blogging Digital Exhibitions

Museum Anthropology Editorial Board member Kimberly Christen, whose blog Long Road was started about a month ago and announced here, continues to offer fresh and valuable insights on our work and its larger social contexts. In her most recent post, she discusses the usefulness of the Dane-zaa Moose Hunt digital exhibition, which I mentioned to her in correspondence recently. Among the organizers of this project is Amber Ridington, a doctoral student in folklore at Memorial University, who herself reviewed a digital exhibition on a Canadian First Nations theme (Drawing on Identity: Inkameep Day School and Art Collection) in Museum Anthropology 29(1), the issue in which we inaugurated a program of such reviews. That same inaugural collection of reviews included Kim's assessment of Ara Irititja: Protecting the Past, Accessing the Future—Indigenous Memories in a Digital Age. It is exciting that Museum Anthropology and the scholarly community that brings the journal to life are extending the conversation on digital exhibitions in fruitful ways. More importantly, it is wonderful that scholars like Amber and Kim have devoted considerable energy to building, in collaboration with many others, the kinds of new media projects that do good work in the world and make such conversations so exciting.

Kimberly Christen Joins Editorial Advisory Board

Today is a good day to announce that Kimberly Christen has joined Museum Anthropology's Editorial Advisory Board. In addition to sharing good news for the journal, it is opportune as a chance to note that Kim launched her own webside and blog called Long Road yesterday. Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies at Washington State University. She collaborates in ethnographic and new media projects with Aboriginal communities in Australia and has a range of interests relevant to Museum Anthropology. Her review of the Ara Irititja project appeared in Museum Anthropology 29(1), and she is the author of a forthcoming paper examining the work of the Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory. I am looking forward to continuing to draw upon Kim's help with the journal and to seeing where her new site goes. It is already a great resource for learning about her outstanding projects. Among my favorites is the remarkable Digital Dynamics Across Cultures project.