National Museum of the American Indian

Living Homes for Cultural Expression

Living Homes for Cultural Expression: North American Native Perspectives on Creating Community Museums

This one-of-a-kind compilation of essays by eleven noted Native museum professionals, whose intimate portraits explore the theory and practice of museum planning for indigenous communities, is paired with a comprehensive directory of more than 200 tribal museums and cultural centers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Specifications
120 pages; 30 b/w photographs; 6 5/8 x 9½ in.
ISBN-10: 0-9719163-8-1 (softcover)

Pricing
$10.36 (NMAI Members)
$11.66 (Smithsonian Members)
$12.95 (Non-Members)

Download this book as a .pdf


	About the Book

Living Homes for Cultural Expression: North American Native Perspectives on Creating Community Museums features essays by eleven noted Native museum professionals, whose varied experiences in creating tribal museums come together in this compact and instructive collection. These intimate portraits, which explore the theory and practice of museum planning for indigenous communities, are paired with a comprehensive directory of more than 200 tribal museums and cultural centers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Contributing authors include Janine Bowechop (Makah), executive director of the Makah Cultural and Research Center in Neah Bay, Wash.; Richard W. Hill Sr. (Tuscarora), guest lecturer at the Six Nations Polytechnic in Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada; Irvine Scalplock (Blackfoot), director of the Culture and Heritage Center at Siksika Nation, Alberta, Canada; and Susan Secakuku (Hopi), an independent consultant on tribal museum- and culture-related projects. The National Museum of the American Indian published Living Homes for Cultural Expressions as a tool for use in Indian Country, serving the museum’s continuing efforts to form partnerships and collaborations with Native tribes, museums, and cultural centers throughout the Americas.


	Book Excerpt

Foreword
This assembly of stories—from an Alutiiq community on Alaska’s Kodiak Island to Hopi people in Arizona—speaks to the concerns and aspirations that unite indigenous peoples in the lands known now as the Americas. The wealth of knowledge brimming from these accounts informs and inspires those who have chosen a journey of great challenges and greater rewards —that of creating a tribal museum. The path of life knows no finite borders or clear maps. There are only moments in time throughout the journey where we find safe places to be who we are and to define ourselves in our own terms. The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) continues to play a vital role as both a haven and hub for many beautifully radiant forms of expression. The hemispheric scope of perspectives presented at the NMAI affirms its commitment to education and public service, which transcends boundaries and narrows distances between people.

Community-based museums and cultural centers strengthen the bonds that connect generations. We remember ourselves in these places and dream about who we want to be. At their best, these places are homes for cultural expression, dialogue, learning, and understanding. They serve the communities and people who initiated them, as well as wider audiences, by stimulating cultural activism and continuity that endures for the sake of all our children. While listening to stories of individuals who have assumed significant roles in the development of a museum or cultural center, we may recognize the familiar. In her piece on volunteerism and its role in maintaining museums, Marilyn C. Hudson recalls the generosity of Helen Gough, an Arikara member of the Three Affiliated Tribes, whose bequest initiated a heritage center for the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara people more than forty years ago. As in many other communities, the essence of giving and commitment to subsequent generations continues to light our path.

The voices in this compendium speak of the celebration and struggle that emerge from sustaining and expanding community-based museums and cultural centers. In her description of public programs development at the Alutiiq Museum, Amy F. Steffian recounts the deliberate, but difficult, choice to invite external partnership. Given the systemic wresting of cultures, languages, and lives from Native peoples that followed for centuries after Contact, it is understood that, for indigenous people, decisions to include agencies and institutions as collaborators do not come without careful consideration and willingness to believe that a new history may begin to unfold. Community-based museums and cultural centers are places where we may bear witness to this transformation.

The spirit of generosity unfolds in these pages. Each of the writers freely shares the wealth of his or her unique experiences. They are the mothers and fathers who have borne and nurtured these places known as tribal museums, raising them for the benefit of their respective communities and for all of us who are invited to learn the wisdom imbued in their stories.

— Nicolasa I. Sandoval (Chumash)