Thread by @jackyd1001, I’ve been looking forward to this #museumsunlocked. I worked for @HornimanMuseum for [...]

I’ve been looking forward to this #museumsunlocked. I worked for @HornimanMuseum for four years, most recently on their World Gallery, and I’m going to do a thread on an installation there that I helped put together. /1 https://twitter.com/profdanhicks/status/1247951582295195648

https://twitter.com/profdanhicks/status/1247951582295195648

The installation Is this one, called the “totem interactive”, it is an interactive exhibit which combines genuine contemporary Indigebous art with an exhibit which children (and adults) can play with to learn about a different culture. /2

It is a collaboration between the Horniman and artists of the Kwakwaka’wakw people, who live on Vancouver Island and the nearby coastlines of British Columbia. The Kwakwaka’wakw are one of the few peoples who are traditional totem pole carvers /3

It’s not widely known in the UK, but totem poles are only traditionally made on a relatively small stretch of the BC/Alaska coastal region by a dozen or so Indigenous groups. Totem poles you see elsewhere are either imports or knock offs /4

Here is @beyondthespec with an account of a totem pole in Manchester that explains a bit more about them. /5

https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/bts/2018/06/27/the-salford-totem-pole/

The Horniman has a totem pole already, carved by Tlingit carver Nathan Jackson in 1984, but it’s outside, and we wanted something adjacent to the historic material in the gallery /6

The gallery has a large case containing historic material from the Northwest Coast region. It has video of a potlatch ceremony and lots of contemporary photographs, but we wanted to go further in showing that these are vibrant living cultures /7

So we discussed the idea with Indigenous partners, and on this basis approached artists from the region to enquire about commissioning three mask-faces (that is, masks but without the backs hollowed out). These would be mounted on cedar pillars on open display /8

The idea is that visitors can touch the wood, feel the shape of carvings they’d normally only see, and smell the cedar, experiences critical to NWC material tactility normally unavailable in museums /9

We had a number of false starts - commissioning something like this at such a distance on a budget was tricky. But eventually we connected with artist Steve Smith via the @GalleryBaldwin and he carved superb masks in a style merging traditional and modern NWC styles /10

The masks were of three traditional figures of Kwakwaka’wakw cosmology, the Bear, the Raven and the Dzunukw’a (this last is spelled many different ways). These figures are central to oral histories of the region, and are considered direct ancestors of living family lineages /11

They are common figures on NWC art including totem poles. The Dzunukw’a is a special case, a wild woman of the forest, both a deadly threat to wandering children and a figure of great magical wealth. /11

But we wanted this interactive to involve all five senses. We wanted these figures to have voice and be alive. So, working with @BorderCrossings we met with young Kwakwaka’wakw heritage worker Sierra Tasi Baker @SierraTasiBaker /13

Sierra came into the museum and we discussed the idea of having each mask tell a story of the figure depicted. Sierra is the daughter of a traditional Chief and thus has the rights and responsibilities of a community oral historian. She is also a professional fire dancer /14

She was in London studying heritage architecture, and jumped at the chance to work on this project (she was fully paid at industry rates as an external contract curator). But she was clear that we needed permission from the Kwakwaka’wakw for these stories to be told /15

We readily agreed and she began the process, leading to a respectful back and forth between the Horniman and the Kwakwaka’wakw. It took about two months, and when all we in agreement, Sierra recorded three six minute stories, one for each mask. /16

These stories were somewhat more blood-thirsty than the interpretation department has anticipated, but that was a matter for the Kwakwaka’wakw, not for the museum to dictate. The six minutes were then each cut into three two minute extracts. /17

The interactive were then constructed and installed, and have proved enormously popular with children, who can hear the stories, see the art, feel the carving and smell the wood (we do not recommend tasting the interactive, especially during a pandemic). /18

A year later the gallery opened, and I was now working for @beyondthespec . Working with the Horniman, Sierra and the @CanadaCouncil we raised money to bring Sierra to London where she gave a keynote speech alongside @wmarybeard /19

I interviewed Sierra afterwards and wrote it up here.

https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/bts/2019/01/11/research-is-a-form-of-healing/ /20

The key quotes:

“This [interactive storytelling exhibit] is a really good precedent, for how I think museums should be showcasing our culture. The entire process itself was really respectful of protocol . . . I really appreciate how that was done, very nuanced” /21

“, and very well understood . . . I think it’s a better way of showing our culture than a mask behind glass, and it shows that our culture is living, that it is a living culture.” /22

“I think the more that researchers start shifting towards realising that they’re helping to change the narrative, and shift the narrative, and understanding that they are agents of reconciliation I think that researchers will realise that their work opens up quite a bit more.”/23

“The more they realise that research is a form of healing. I think that would be really amazing if academics could figure that one out.”

When life resumes, please do go and see the interactive and listen to the stories! /24

With thanks to @HornimanMuseum @SierraTasiBaker @CanadaCouncil @GalleryBaldwin @beyondthespec and all the team who worked collaboratively on this project. 25/25

PS the woman in the photo at the top of this thread is @SierraTasiBaker herself at the opening, wearing Indigenous fashion designed for the occasion.

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