Claudia Nicholson wrote:
'I believe that museums have gone a long way in planning their exhibitions in
sharing authority with their visitors.  I am not so sure that we have gone
that distance in sharing authority with our community (communities) in the
area of collecting.'

Hi Claudia
I think that this is a very important issue and I wonder that we have not
already talked more about it. I was working on an idea some years ago now
with an Aboriginal community, in which 'the collection' actually remained
in their homes where it played an important role in shaping and reaffirming
identity and a sense of personal and community achievement, but the museum
collected the information ie constructed a culturally appropriate database,
which could only be changed by them but would be held at the Museum. We
were also going to provide assistance with conservation, and we would take
any material into the Museum that could no longer be cared for at home. At
some point the Museum and community were going to draw on this database and
do an exhibition. But sadly I left the state before we got too far. Would
you be interested in seeing the paper I wrote?
cheers
Julia

Julia Clark
Senior Lecturer, Cultural Heritage Management, University of Canberra
Independent Curator & Interpreter

Visit the hunger site and donate a cup of food to the United Nations Worlds
Food program - www.hungersite.com

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).