We smudged in our museum when I was director. Not in the collections area, but still in the museum. We also had the museum blessed each year. Sometimes, in these situations, the traditional culture  must take precedence over preservation standards. Ask the director, is he preserving stuff, or a culture. It goes against archaeological training (which I have) to smudge, but it is often best to follow the cultural practices (which I also have.)



----- Original Message ----
From: Thomas Kavanagh <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:14:23 PM
Subject: Smudging in a Tribal Museum

Listeros (and conservators in particular):
 
An question has arisen in regard to a tribal museum for which tribe I am a sometime historical/cultural/NAGPRA consultant.
 
The museum building [which has no secure storage, only exhibition and office space] also houses the tribal NAGPRA offices. When they (the latter) receive repatriated artifacts (not burials), they often "smudge" them, smoke them as a blessing (and to fumigate them, if you will) with cedar or sage smoke. [An off-site secure storage for the NAGPRA items is available.] 
 
The museum director, a tribal member and trained archaeologist, but not a long-time community resident, has issued a "burn ban" on any smudging in the building. This has upset the NAGPRA committee.
 
What say ye:
 
Is the occasional exposure [e.g., perhaps once every twenty years per artifact] of artifacts to cedar/sage smoke necessarily harmful? One of the tribe's NAGPRA board, a trained ornithologist, and the source of the above "fumigation" comment, suggests that it might be beneficial for items that have not been kept in ideal collections conditions. [I am also told that an examination of the building's blue prints shows that the exhibition space and the office space [i.e., museum and NAGPRA spaces] are on separate and distinct HVAC circuits.]
 
Thomas Kavanagh, PhD=========================================================
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