Visual Representations and Entanglements: Photography and Native Identity-Making in the Classroom and Museum

Summary

This paper examines politics of representation of Native North American communities, past and present, through the use of photographs in academic and museum settings. We consider how photographs of people and objects have been used to naturalize precepts of colonialism, as well as how they have been used to empower indigenous subjects. The implementation of NAGPRA has provided a framework for museums to determine if they should display certain objects deemed culturally sensitive; however, there are no formal procedures in place for historic photographs and images, whether used in museum exhibitions or education venues such as classroom lectures, publications, and media. We critically examine the roles of photographs in popular and academic imaginations as a means to explore improved methods of teaching anthropology in the 21st century. Through interviews with Native consultants, we aim to explore "best practice" approaches for representing Native identities in the classroom and in museum exhibits, in order to move away from outdated representations and stereotypes.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• See How We Are: Representing Identity in the Ancient Americas

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