Plenary: The legacy of museum ethnography for indigenous people today - case studies from Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

The following plenary took place at the seminar ‘Reassembling the material: A research seminar on museums, fieldwork anthropology and indigenous agency’ held in November 2012 at Te Herenga Waka marae, Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. In the papers, indigenous scholars and museum professionals presented a mix of past legacies and contemporary initiatives which illustrated the evolving relations between Māori people, and museums and other cultural heritage institutions in New Zealand. Whereas most of the papers at this seminar, and the articles in this special issue, are focused on the history of ethnology, museums, and government, between about 1900 and 1940, this section brings the analysis up to the present day, and considers the legacy of the indigenous engagement with museums and fieldwork anthropology for contemporary museum practice. What do the findings, which show active and extensive indigenous engagements with museums and fieldwork, mean for indigenous museum professionals and communities today?