Meeting Negotiation Challenges in the Repatriation of Native American Museum Collections
The Program on Negotiation is pleased to present:
Meeting Negotiation Challenges in the Repatriation of
Native American Museum Collections
with
Christina Hodge
Coordinator for Academic Partnerships and Senior Curatorial Assistant
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
Wednesday, April 23rd
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Hauser 105
Harvard Law School Campus
Please bring your lunch; drinks and dessert will be served.
About the talk:
The passage of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) fundamentally shifted relationships between museums and Native American tribes, as well as underlying values of museum accountability. NAGPRA requires the disposition of certain collections (human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and cultural patrimony) from federally-funded museums to culturally affiliated tribes. Because it is federal legislation, NAGPRA defines the circumstances, content, and structure of the negotiation process. Through sensitive, creative consultations, however, museum and Native representatives meet the challenges of NAGPRA while working together to achieve positive results within both the letter and the spirit of the law. Case studies reveal how outcomes framed within, and beyond, NAGPRA can support restorative justice, educational collaboration, community revitalization, and new best practices for museums and tribes alike.
About the speaker:
Christina J. Hodge is Coordinator for Academic Partnerships at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, studying the past and its present legacies through museum anthropology, material culture studies, historical archaeology, and historical ethnography. Dr. Hodge lectures on Anthropology and Museum Studies in the Harvard Extension School and Summer School and co-directs the Archaeology of Harvard Yard project in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She has worked in the Peabody’s repatriation program since 1997. Dr. Hodge’s research explores the tensions between individual and institutional authority in early America, as well as the social roles and pedagogical potential of museum collections.
Comments are closed.