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Accepted Paper:
Collections Management as a Critical and Political Museum Practice
Cara Krmpotich
(University of Toronto)
This paper builds on experiences teaching collections management for museum studies students, integrating anthropological approaches to knowledge systems and material culture to decolonize an incredibly durable facet of museums: the catalogue.
Paper long abstract:
This paper builds on experiences teaching collections management for museum studies students. Often thought of as rote, neutral and apolitical labour, collections management instead embodies and enacts the values, ethics and politics of museums and their societies. It thus presents an important possible site for institutional decolonial action. In my research, professional work and teaching, I have found that integrating anthropological approaches to knowledge systems and material culture can be productive in moving from general desires to decolonize or Indigenize museum practice and offer some means for settler scholars and practitioners to take up the work of decolonization. Importantly, museums are not simply sites for critique; they are places for acting, working, and world-making. In this paper, I consider what this might look like for settler museum staff in Canada responsible for the intellectual and physical care of collections.