Indigenous Collections

A critical survey of the values, challenges, implications, history, and future of conserving Indigenous collections globally.

The latest publication in the GCI's Readings in Conservation series brings together a carefully curated selection of over 100 writings to trace the history of preserving and conserving Indigenous collections, including critical considerations of early approaches, responses to these practices.

Once the exclusive realm of non-Indigenous curators and conservators, the care of Indigenous works in museums is now largely carried out either in collaboration with or by community members-a significant change from the colonial origins of museum collections and conservation practice.

This volume brings together over 100 readings-by Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors from around the world-that trace the development of the conservation of Indigenous collections. The writers provide a wide range of expertise, from archaeology and ethnography to law, and include community leaders, anthropologists, and art historians, as well as conservators and curators.

The book begins with an examination of the changes in terminology that increasingly reflect trust and respect, Indigenous care practices that predate the emergence of museums, and the impact of policy and legislation on Indigenous art and artifacts. Other readings explore the challenges associated with managing large, complex collections and the changes that resulted from addressing them: the development of specialized technical approaches, the incorporation of intangible heritage in conservation agendas, and a broadening view of what conservation means and how to practice it. Indigenous Collections concludes by looking at new approaches to museums-managed by or jointly with the people most closely connected to the holdings-and to the future, through innovations in conservation education.