Seventeenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Grass-root Indigenous community revitalization programs have long focused on sustainable environmental, social, cultural, economic, and linguistic rejuvenation. These community revitalization programs share many similarities with the goals outlined by SDGs. However, many cultural institutions have ignored these Indigenous led efforts for decades. Even museums that occupy traditional Indigenous homeland territories fail to initiate cultural exchanges between Native and non-Native audiences, promote wider learning of Indigenous history, acknowledge colonial resistance, or even recognize the continued existence of local bands in the region. However, since the 1960’s, Native American tribes in the United States have founded and built their own museums and cultural centers to aid their community revitalization efforts. Effectively, these institutions are the most ‘Indigenized’ or under the most influence by local Indigenous people or bands. In this paper I examine three museums: Chumash Indian Museum of Thousand Oaks, Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center at the Santa Ynez Reservation, and the Malki Museum on the Morongo Reservation in Banning. Using an autoethnographic approach, I consider how the museums themselves, as well as their associated programs and events, help strengthen relationships between both Native and non-Native audiences through various interpretation materials and displays. I also explore the theme of multilateralism as evidenced by the cultural exchanges and cooperation between federally recognized tribes, who in the United States have tribal sovereignty, and their associated museums. Lastly, I analyze how these multilateral efforts are also used to support non-federally recognized bands and their specific revitalization programs.