The scholar–practitioner expanded: an indigenous and museum research network

Abstract

An ongoing initiative based at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, England, is expanding the idea of the museum scholar–practitioner. In partnership with the Haida First Nation from British Columbia, Canada, the project Haida Material Culture in UK Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge is an international research network that uses museum collections to build and maintain long–term relationships between scholar–practitioners from both museum and aboriginal communities. The material heritage of the Haida acts as a nexus for dialogues regarding provenance, conservation techniques, cataloguing practices, cultural expression and artistic innovation, linguistic research and the emotive and affective power of objects. Such dialogues also promote forms of repatriation, and build links between material culture and the generation and transmission of cultural identity. The result is a multi-sited community of practice, comprised of seasoned and burgeoning scholar–practitioners using material culture and collective knowledge to explore Haida history, contemporary cultural expression, museum practices and the relationships between them.