Mike,

I would just offer another perspective. It isn't necessarily conservation vs. better relations with tribal groups. As was stated in a previous posting many of my colleagues in conservation have been at the forefront of developing access and protocols for tribal ritual use of such artifacts.  I sometimes think that conservation can be conveniently used by some as the symbol of a larger ideological issue.

I personally see any divide as being one of a western scientific museology viewpoint vs. the cultural viewpoint of the originators of the artifacts. This most prominently happened with the Native American human remains that filled many storage rooms for years in museums and other academic repositories that led in large part to the NAGPRA legislation.

I heard a very knowledgeable colleague, some years ago, explain that the importance of human remains and tombs was all in the archaeological context and association of the burial as a whole. That museums have seemed, for the most part, to disassociate and deconstruct that very context when presenting burial artifacts in exhibits. One man's culture is another man's art, or treasure.

As a conservator I well understand that the ceremonial use of artifacts will probably affect their material longevity in some incremental way. But there is also a cultural and spiritual integrity to an artifact that can be equally lost because of the different point of view of the current owner / custodians of the object.

The true goal is to get both to meet and to appreciate each other's perspectives. Fortunately we live in a time when this is happening. It is all about respect in my book.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, CA


On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 2:03 PM, Mike Siebol <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
This is a great discussion.  Conservation vs. better relations with the groups that the items belonged to at one time.  Most of the artifacts that are being smudged had been smudged many times before being stored in a museum.
 
When on a trip to D.C. I had an opportunity to check out the storage facility (Cultural Resource Center, Suitland, MD) for the National Museum of the American Indian.  They not only had a special smudging area outside of the building, but also had a special conference room for smudging if the weather was bad.  They took architectural plans for office buildings that needed exhaust for "smoke filled board rooms" from decades past, to create a good space for smudging on a separate HVAC system.
 
I lost my contact at the NMAI, but I bet they would be happy to share their plans for a smudging room. 

Michael M. Siebol
Curator of Collections
Yakima Valley Museum
2105 Tieton Dr.
Yakima, WA 98902
Phone 509-248-0747  Fax 509-453-4890
 
Museum website:  www.yakimavalleymuseum.org
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]" href="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">Thomas Kavanagh
To: [log in to unmask]" href="mailto:[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">[log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:14 PM
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] 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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