Seventeenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum

Abstract

In November of 2022, Colorado became first in the United States to decriminalize psychedelics for personal and regulated use after passing Proposition (Prop) 122. Its passage created the Natural Medicine Health Act, which decriminalized four substances: Psilocybin or Psilocin, Ibogaine, Mescaline, and Dimethyltryptamine. In the spring of 2023, while interning for History Colorado I collected oral histories from activists, politicians, and Indigenous medicine people in relation to prop 122 and its cultural impact. Prior to and immediately following the legislation, Colorado’s Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) political activists pushed against the forces of colonization and commodification. The most salient data that typically reaches American audiences comes from research institutions such as the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Johns Hopkins, and Stanford University. Indicated by the latest research and the full-house MAPS conference in Denver during the summer of 2023 (of which I was granted a scholarship to attend) was of course the promise of healing; however upon closer inquiry certain communities felt pushed out of the contentious legislative process in Prop 122. More importantly, these communities had either used the psychedelic substances as part of Indigenous sacraments instrumental in their spiritual practices or were the target for policing and retributive punishment for using them. This paper focuses on the oral histories I collected and accessioned to History Colorado and how the narratives highlight the intersectionality of BIPOC communities who have historically been left out of museum interpretive and collection practices.