鈥淲e are not the museum we wanted to be. And we鈥檙e not the museum we should be,鈥� Royal sa国际传媒 Museum Acting CEO Dan Musyka was quoted as saying June 29 in these pages.
His comments were in response to results of an 颅independent investigation and staff survey that found 颅Indigenous staff have 颅experienced discrimination at the museum, and museum leadership failed to manage the environment fostering 颅discriminatory behaviour.
In another June 29 story in these pages, about calls to cancel sa国际传媒 Day, Winnipeg Indigenous writer David 颅Robertson is quoted as saying: 鈥淚 think we really need to question, what country are we living in? Because I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 the country that we think it is, or that we thought it was.鈥�
Two similar quotes by 颅different people from 颅different backgrounds and different areas of the country speaking in response to different events.
But they address one 颅underlying issue.
The Royal sa国际传媒 Museum鈥檚 investigation and internal 颅inclusion and psychological safety survey were launched after the museum鈥檚 head of the Indigenous collections and 颅repatriation department resigned in June 2020. In her resignation speech, Lucy Bell, a member of the Haida Nation, spoke of a culture of 颅racism and discrimination at the museum. The museum released a 颅summary of the investigation in a report that also summarized the survey results.
The calls to cancel this year鈥檚 sa国际传媒 Day celebrations came after hundreds of undocumented graves were discovered on the grounds of former residential schools in sa国际传媒 and Saskatchewan. The discoveries provide further evidence of widespread abuse at the schools. In this case, residential-school, church and political leadership failed to manage the environment that fostered the abuse for more than a century. They permitted and even encouraged it.
Museums mirror the 颅community. What is found in the galleries and collections of the Royal sa国际传媒 Museum is not just a sampling of sa国际传媒鈥檚 cultural and natural history but a reinforcement of our community values, priorities, preferences and preoccupations through time.
Many museum 颅collections were amassed during the course of empire and 颅colonization. Our provincial museum is no 颅exception. It has, for 颅example, Indigenous 颅collections, which Bell oversaw until her 颅resignation. Many of those 颅artifacts and specimens were taken and kept from sa国际传媒 First Nations communities, 颅reinforcing colonial power, social and political relationships.Similarly, what happens behind the scenes at the museum reflects what happens in our streets, businesses, schools and universities and political 颅institutions. Our museum is 颅sa国际传媒 and sa国际传媒 writ small.
But over the last decade, the global museum community has been debating what museums are. The industry has defined 鈥渕useum鈥� since the 1970s as 鈥渁 non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the 颅public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and 颅intangible heritage of 颅humanity and its environment for the 颅purposes of education, study and enjoyment.鈥�
The definition is 颅straightforward, but it ignores much of what museums do. It overlooks the social, economic and political roles museums play within their communities and the different models that 颅museums now operate under.
A proposed and contested new definition describes museums as 鈥渄emocratising, inclusive and
polyphonic spaces鈥� that 颅鈥渃ontribute to human 颅dignity and social justice, global 颅equality and planetary well-being.鈥� This, advocates say, better defines the 21st-century museum.
A quick survey of the debate indicates that such a museum is a social, political, economic and environmental force. Such a museum, it seems, recognizes the need to be accessible by marginalized and overlooked communities. This means 颅engaging with and including those communities and their 颅stories in its galleries, its work and its workers.
A modern museum confronts the past and tells its difficult, controversial and ugly stories. It presents and grapples with the issues its communities are struggling with. It also promotes community, connection, health and well-being.
The Royal sa国际传媒 Museum is beginning its own modernization. New facilities are planned, core galleries are to be replaced with exhibits 颅better 颅reflecting the voices and 颅history of all of sa国际传媒鈥檚 peoples. The agency鈥檚 service plan 颅specifies 颅advancing 颅reconciliation by working closely with 颅Indigenous 颅communities 颅seeking the return of 颅ancestral remains and 颅cultural objects to their 颅communities. The 颅museum鈥檚 mandate letter lists 颅reconciliation, equity and 颅anti-racism among the agency鈥檚 priorities.
Additional work focuses on the human side 鈥� training staff to build an inclusive culture, aligning operations with the principles of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and better resourcing the Indigenous collections and 颅repatriation department.
As the museum undertakes to bring itself fully into the 21st聽century, so, too, is the broader community needing to modernize and further 颅reconciliation in our streets, businesses, schools, universities and political institutions.
Musyka and Robertson may have been addressing different specifics, but essentially they were saying the same thing.
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