ReFRAMING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY COLLECTIONS STEWARDSHIP

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Date and time:  March 8, 2024,10:00-11:30AM AKST / 12:00-1:30PM MST / 1:00-2:30PM CST / 2:00-3:30PM EST

Location:  Zoom

Price:  Free

DESCRIPTION

How do Indigenous communities define community-centered collections? How do we navigate the management, care, and access to Indigenous materials in a sector that is still defined by colonized standards that do not recognize Indigenous lifeways? How can we decolonize those standards in the areas of acquisition, description, organizational policies and procedures, and access and sharing? Please join our panelists for an in-depth community conversation on Indigenous community collections stewardship and learn more about how the museum and archival professions can help reframe how they engage and serve Indigenous communities. 

This community conversation will be co-hosted by Museums Alaska and Selena Ortega-Chiolero, Museum Specialist for Chickaloon Village Traditional Council, through the generous support of the University of Virginia Rare Book School as part of its Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for Diversity, Inclusion and Cultural Heritage community symposia.

Panelists:

• Angela Demma, Curator of Collections and Exhibits, Alaska Native Heritage Center

• Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, Associate Curator on Native Hawaiian History and Culture, National Museum of the American Indian

• Colleen Lucero, Managing Director, Hopivewat Learning Center

• Monique Tyndall, Director of Cultural Affairs, Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans

• Angela Wade, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer and Department Director of Culture and Historic Preservation, Chickaloon Village Traditional Council

• Vina Begay, Librarian, Arizona State University Library, Labriola National American Indian Data Center

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MORE ABOUT THE MODERATOR & SPEAKERS:

Vina Begay

Vina Begay (Diné Nation) is the Assistant Librarian for the Labriola National American Indian Data Center at Arizona State University. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater. Before professionally working as a Librarian and Archivist, Vina worked in the Theater profession for 16 years, including low budget student films. Vina graduated with a Master of Business Administration and Master of Library and Information Science with a specialization in Archival Studies and Digital Information Management. Vina has dedicated her career to safeguarding, preserving, and advocating the implementation of the Protocols of Native American Archival Materials within western institutions to ensure proper care and management of Indigenous Information of traditional knowledge. Additionally, Vina has served as Tribal Archivist consultant for Tribal communities in assistance with establishing Indigenous Archival Centers within their community, including developing archival practices tailored to the Tribe’s cultural beliefs, practices, and governance structure.

Angela Demma

Angela Demma is a curator and arts advocate who lives and works on Dena'na homelands in and around Anchorage, Alaska. She is currently working at the Alaska Native Heritage Center as the Curator of Collections and Exhibits. She has also held curatorial positions at the Anchorage Museum, Alaska Native Arts Foundation, the Municipality of Anchorage, and she taught Alaska Native Art History at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. She's worked in cultural non-profits in Alaska for more than 20 years.

Her arts advocacy work is currently focused on administering programs for Alaska Native PLACE (providing living artists creative environments), a grassroots group of Alaska Native artists creating opportunities and community in Anchorage.

Halena Kapuni-Reynolds

Halena Kapuni-Reynolds is the Associate Curator of Native Hawaiian History and Culture at the National Museum of the American Indian. He holds a B.A. in anthropology and Hawaiian studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo (2013) and an M.A. in anthropology from the University of Denver (2015). His master’s thesis, “Curating Aliʻi Collections: Responsibility, Sensibility, and Contextualization in Hawaiʻi-Based Museums,” analyzed how Hawaiian chiefly collections are curated at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum and the Lyman House Memorial Museum. Currently, Halena is finishing a Ph.D. in American studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa focused on the early history of the Hawaiian Home Land community of Keaukaha in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. One of his chapters includes re-envisioning a cultural center for his community modeled on earlier examples developed by other community members. Overall, Halena’s academic work and scholarship reflect his commitment to serving the Hawaiian community, Hawaiʻi’s museum profession, and the fields of museum anthropology and Indigenous studies. His most recent publication, a co-authored essay with Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu titled “Native Hawaiians and the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum: Historical Reckoning, Truth-telling, and Healing,” was published in the edited volume U.S. Museum Histories And The Politics Of Interpretation: Never Neutral.

Colleen Lucero

Colleen Lucero is Hopi, Katsina clan, from Hotevilla, Arizona. She holds a B.F.A. in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Colleen is the current Managing Director of Hopivewat Learning Center. In this role, she is responsible for project management, confirmation of land site, and networking with partnering organizations for funding and development. Prior worked for the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, serving in many capacities, including researching intellectual property rights, handling cultural misappropriation, and developing NAGPRA content management systems. Ms. Lucero also serves as a community curator, contributing to various exhibits at the Tucson Museum of Art and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. Most importantly, she is a daughter, sister, mother, and aunt who loves gardening in the multigenerational terrace gardens in her village.

Monique Tyndall

Monique Tyndall is the Director of Cultural Affairs for the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans located on Menominee lands in Wisconsin. Her work is dedicated to advancing representation, historic interpretation, language, arts & culture of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community through the SMC-Cultural Affairs Department. She has worked in the cultural heritage field for 22 years. She holds a BA in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts & MA in Cultural Sustainability from Goucher College.

Angela Wade

Angie Wade is Ahtna Dene’ of the taltsiine (water clan) and the c’etsiy tnaey (iron people clan). Angie is a Nay’dini’aa Na’ Kayax (Chickaloon Native Village) Tribal citizen born in Anchorage, Alaska. Angie has lived most of her life in the woods and waters around Tsidak’etna’ (Moose Creek) along the Matanuska River. Angie has been a Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for 9 years. In various capacities for more than 30 years, Angie has served her Tribe and community as a teacher, an Environmental Stewardship Director, and as a law enforcement officer. Many years ago, Nay’dini’aa Na’ Kayax resoundingly picked tourism as a focus for long-term community sustainability, and Angie has worked determinedly to develop and sustain cultural tourism for the community. In her spare time, Angie enjoys being out on the land to learn stories about history that nature generously shares with us all if we look, listen, and learn.

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