Elders bring home sacred Indigenous artefacts held in UK museum
October 12, 2024 11:38 PM Subscribe
Elders bring home sacred Indigenous artefacts held in UK museum for 120 years. Warumungu artefacts, including a famous boomerang, are being returned to country in Central Australia in an emotional milestone for the community.
I liked the inclusion of a âsecret menâs object.â It piques the curiosity, followed by âof course they donât describe it; itâs secret.â
I also liked the picture of the boomerang, which looks very textured, and Iâm wondering how much of that is from the making, the grain, the age, or something I havenât thought of.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:05 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]
I also liked the picture of the boomerang, which looks very textured, and Iâm wondering how much of that is from the making, the grain, the age, or something I havenât thought of.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:05 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]
Good. I appreciate that the article does point out that most of these things were stolen, though they do use euphemistic terms like âtakenâ instead. Iâm a huge art history nerd and I remember getting mad about this kind of thing in school.
Twenty five years ago, I figured it was obvious that curators and historians should be focusing on digital records of things so items and remains that had been stolen could be returned as soon as possible but the world could still benefit from the art and information. But itâs much more nuanced than that. I made friends with someone who worked at a universityâs archeology department whose job was almost entirely interfacing with different tribal groups to figure out how to give back a lot of ancestral remains in the universityâs collection, and she told me all about how precarious these kinds of processes are.
For one thing, the (presumably white) art historians shouldnât be taking any pictures or video of a lot of these objects, and it is the original ownersâ choice whether or not to allow knowledge that they even exist to be available to the world. Like the âsecret menâs objectâ in the article, part of the complexity here is respecting cultural nuances that involve the protection of knowledge outside of the objects themselves. Once something is known about, how do museums and curators take that knowledge back? It is a real point of friction.
But also youâve got a lot of hesitancy on the side of Western curators who are reluctant to relinquish stolen items to a place that might not preserve them in a way that they deem appropriate. Of course, the reason these places might not have the resources for a fully climate controlled fancy state of the art museum is because of colonialism in the first place, but why bring that up?? Itâs been decades of this and I think finally we are seeing a crumbling of this bullshit barrier. My suspicion is that part of it is the availability and efficacy of solar power, allowing buildings to be built off-grid that still keep delicate items intact.
Now, in this aggravating age of AI that isnât actually intelligent, I worry about digital records of sacred and secret objects being tossed into the mix. So in contrast to me a quarter century ago, I donât think curators should be focusing on photos and video of stuff. Get things back to the people they belong to, asap. Thatâs it. The rest is no one elseâs business.
posted by Mizu at 9:07 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]
Twenty five years ago, I figured it was obvious that curators and historians should be focusing on digital records of things so items and remains that had been stolen could be returned as soon as possible but the world could still benefit from the art and information. But itâs much more nuanced than that. I made friends with someone who worked at a universityâs archeology department whose job was almost entirely interfacing with different tribal groups to figure out how to give back a lot of ancestral remains in the universityâs collection, and she told me all about how precarious these kinds of processes are.
For one thing, the (presumably white) art historians shouldnât be taking any pictures or video of a lot of these objects, and it is the original ownersâ choice whether or not to allow knowledge that they even exist to be available to the world. Like the âsecret menâs objectâ in the article, part of the complexity here is respecting cultural nuances that involve the protection of knowledge outside of the objects themselves. Once something is known about, how do museums and curators take that knowledge back? It is a real point of friction.
But also youâve got a lot of hesitancy on the side of Western curators who are reluctant to relinquish stolen items to a place that might not preserve them in a way that they deem appropriate. Of course, the reason these places might not have the resources for a fully climate controlled fancy state of the art museum is because of colonialism in the first place, but why bring that up?? Itâs been decades of this and I think finally we are seeing a crumbling of this bullshit barrier. My suspicion is that part of it is the availability and efficacy of solar power, allowing buildings to be built off-grid that still keep delicate items intact.
Now, in this aggravating age of AI that isnât actually intelligent, I worry about digital records of sacred and secret objects being tossed into the mix. So in contrast to me a quarter century ago, I donât think curators should be focusing on photos and video of stuff. Get things back to the people they belong to, asap. Thatâs it. The rest is no one elseâs business.
posted by Mizu at 9:07 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]
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posted by HearHere at 12:52 AM on October 13