Considerations for Your Stewardship Journey: The Indigenous Collections Care Guide as a Resource

Summary

This is an abstract from the "In Search of Solutions: Exploring Pathways to Repatriation for NAGPRA Practitioners (Part III)" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Museums and academic institutions are beginning to reexamine their collections stewardship and daily practice by inviting Indigenous voices and perspectives into the conversation. This is becoming particularly relevant with the proposed addition of duty of care to the NAGPRA regulations. However, knowing where and how to start can be overwhelming—especially while advocating for change within your institution. With funding and partnership from IMLS and the School for Advanced Research Indian Arts and Research Center, the Indigenous Collections Care (ICC) Working Group is creating a guide, which will be a reference tool for institutions that interact regularly with Indigenous collections. The guide will not teach museums how to specifically care for each item, since these vary among each community. It will instead offer achievable considerations and templates for implementation, advocacy, and creation of policies and procedures. This guide does not replace consultation or the repatriation process—instead, it is meant to help guide those conversations and provide a framework. This presentation will discuss the development of the guide and how it can be a tool for stewarding sensitive cultural heritage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• In Search of Solutions: Exploring Pathways to Repatriation for NAGPRA Practitioners (Part III)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39407.0