Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA)

Volunteered - Oral Presentation Session

Displaying Truth and Reconciliation: Experiences of Engagement between Alberni Indian Residential School Survivors and Museum Professionals Curating the Canadian History Hall

Museum Anthropology, Decolonization, Collaboration

Presenter(s)

• BC

  Bradley Clements

The re-curated Canadian History Hall opened at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Québec, on July 1st, 2017, becoming the first exhibition of Canada's national narrative to feature the history, experiences, and aftermath of Canada’s genocidal Indian Residential School system. Through interviews and participant observation, this case study considers experiences of Canadian History Hall curatorial engagements between Alberni Indian Residential School Survivors and museum professionals. Their experiences illustrate practical challenges, structural limitations, and complementary interests of Western museums and Indigenous source communities attempting to collaboratively curate difficult history. Despite having limited capacities for indigenization or decolonization, this research demonstrates that museums like the Canadian Museum of History can be complicated, limited, but beneficial partners for some Indigenous source communities and anti-colonial engagements with Canadian society.