Pasefika Identities: How Museums Can Start Conversations Around Identity through Collections and Education

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Campus where you would like to present

Ellensburg

Event Website

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source

Start Date

16-5-2021

End Date

22-5-2021

Abstract

Inspired by previous internships and community work within the PNW, this presentation analyzes the way in which museums serve as a point to facilitate conversations around identity, indigenous knowledge and transformational learning. Centered on Pacific Islander identities, this presentation aims to create dialogue on Pacific identities within museums, higher education and their relation to larger pedagogical themes of decolonial education, research and identity exploration. Using indigenous ways of knowing and sharing knowledge i.e. storytelling, this presentation aims at how we can reconsider using museum collections to work with communities and decolonize how public institutions discuss museum objects, community affiliation, and etc. In this presentation, I will be drawing on my time interning at the UW Burke Museum using their Oceanic collections as a focus as well as incorporating how research and community work call for intentional educational opportunities that respond to community interest, i.e. how this research becomes a basis for classes in UW's Anthropology Dept. By using museum collections and collaborative community work, we can introduce new ways of understanding identity, using museum collections, and highlighting marginalized groups in academia.

Faculty Mentor(s)

Hope Amason

Department/Program

Anthropology and Museum Studies

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May 16th, 12:00 PM May 22nd, 12:00 PM

Pasefika Identities: How Museums Can Start Conversations Around Identity through Collections and Education

Ellensburg

Inspired by previous internships and community work within the PNW, this presentation analyzes the way in which museums serve as a point to facilitate conversations around identity, indigenous knowledge and transformational learning. Centered on Pacific Islander identities, this presentation aims to create dialogue on Pacific identities within museums, higher education and their relation to larger pedagogical themes of decolonial education, research and identity exploration. Using indigenous ways of knowing and sharing knowledge i.e. storytelling, this presentation aims at how we can reconsider using museum collections to work with communities and decolonize how public institutions discuss museum objects, community affiliation, and etc. In this presentation, I will be drawing on my time interning at the UW Burke Museum using their Oceanic collections as a focus as well as incorporating how research and community work call for intentional educational opportunities that respond to community interest, i.e. how this research becomes a basis for classes in UW's Anthropology Dept. By using museum collections and collaborative community work, we can introduce new ways of understanding identity, using museum collections, and highlighting marginalized groups in academia.

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2021/COTS/9