What to know
- The museum justified the closure as an adaptation to a federal norm that requires cultural institutions to have the consent of the native peoples to be able to exhibit the works.
- Starting this Saturday, the institution will keep the ‘Eastern Woodlands’ and ‘Great Plains’ galleries closed, and will cover three exhibitors located at the doors of the first, two display cases from the ‘Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples’ – where cultural objects were displayed native Hawaiian – and two others from the ‘Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall’.
- The museum thus joins other cultural institutions in the United States, such as the Chicago Museum of Natural History or the Cleveland Museum of Art, which have covered some of their exhibits while they study how to adapt to new norms and new times.
NEW YORK — The American Museum of Natural History in New York, one of the most visited in the world, will close two galleries dedicated to the indigenous cultures of North America, as part of a process of historical reinterpretation of museums undertaken in the United States and Europe .
The museum justified the closure as an adaptation to a federal norm that requires cultural institutions to have the consent of the native peoples to be able to exhibit the works.
Starting this Saturday, the institution will keep the ‘Eastern Woodlands’ and ‘Great Plains’ galleries closed, and will cover three exhibitors located at the doors of the first, two display cases from the ‘Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples’ – where cultural objects were displayed native Hawaiian – and two others from the ‘Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall’.
“The number of cultural objects in those halls is significant, and also because these exhibits are very dated, we have decided that, rather than covering up or removing specific items, we will close the galleries,” museum president Sean M. Decatur explained in a statement. a letter to its workers that EFE accessed.
According to Decatur, the closure of the ‘Eastern Woodlands’ exhibition leads to the suspension of school trips to the gallery, which have been practiced for years.
The museum thus joins other cultural institutions in the United States, such as the Chicago Museum of Natural History or the Cleveland Museum of Art, which have covered some of their exhibits while they study how to adapt to new norms and new times.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Nagpra), enacted in 1990, established protocols for museums and other institutions to return human remains, funerary objects and other items to their tribes of origin, since in many cases they were obtained without your consent.
However, many museums did not comply with the regulations, which were finally updated in December, when a five-year period was issued to repatriate the items.
In the statement, Decatur agreed with the law and assured that, although the closure of the galleries may seem hasty, “it reflects a growing urgency for all museums to change their relationships with and representation of indigenous cultures.” .
The president called the affected galleries “vestiges of a time when museums like ours did not respect the values, perspectives and shared humanity of indigenous people.”
“These actions are just the beginning, not the end. We will take this opportunity to continue our own learning and advance our commitment to working in new ways,” he added.
2024-01-27 04:17:10
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