Making Visible the Storeroom

In May our research director Dr. Sarah Elise Baker attended a symposium hosted by the University of Brighton called ‘Making Visible the Storeroom’.

Sarah shared with us that there was a general feeling within museum studies scholars and among curators that want to do the right thing for indigenous communities, whether physical repatriations or digital versions. There was an acknowledgement that the needs of communities differ and responses should be tailored appropriately from the full spectrum of repatriation.

For many museums in the West one of the issues preventing museums from their desired efforts to connect indigenous communities with their taonga was because they don’t know how or where to start.

Sarah met with other researchers who are working in the field of scanning and digitising indigenous artefacts. Research projects ranged from those focused on creating exact digital copies to documentary of crafts people and makers. Something Sarah noted was the potential for those involved in the digitisation process to be more in-tune with the ethical and cultural nuances of scanning. This can be particularly relevant when it comes to scanning human remains such as kōiwi tangata. This finding informed our ‘Taonga-Led Approach to Digitisation’ soon to be published in the Journal of Museum Ethnography.