Paper short abstract:

This paper explores curation as co-facilitator 'for' the tangible and intangible contemporary reality of Indigenous narratives that exist and endure within objects bounded by the walls of an American university museum and the greater colonized landscape on which it exists.

Paper long abstract:

The Michigan State University Museum established in 1857 has as troubling a past with Indigenous peoples as many United States museums created in the 19th century, which often placed Indigenous peoples in museums of Natural History. The legacy of such practices served to disenfranchise contemporary Indigenous communities from their own cultural heritage and distance them from engagement with museums. The Michigan State University Museum, like many others in the past several decades, has sought to redress this legacy through collaborative programs with Indigenous communities that recognize the continued practice of traditional Indigenous arts, lifeways, 'digital repatriation,' and other projects. Yet, while opening empowering forms of access for Indigenous peoples to express their heritage, these efforts often sustain intellectual colonialism by continuing to make narratives of Indigeneity an "abstracted tool of the West" (Watts 2013: 28) consumed by the non-Indigenous public. Recognizing this, the Michigan State University Museum seeks to further challenge these relational transformations of curatorial practice by redefining curation as a process of continuous engagement in the present. As conceived and expressed in this paper, Curation and the role of the Curator serve as co-facilitators 'for' the tangible and intangible contemporary reality of Indigenous narratives that exists and endures within not only the objects bounded within the walls of the Museum but also the greater colonized landscape on which the university exists. To move towards achieving this goal, the Museum has created the position of Curator for North American Indigenous Studies and Engagement.