Examination of the systems of authority of three Canadian museums and the challenges of aboriginal peoples ...

• Main Author: Mattson, Linda Karen
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: Yellowknife
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0087959; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0087959

In order to illustrate why museums are frequently sites of conflict and mediation, this dissertation examines the complex conditions under which knowledge is produced and disseminated at three Canadian museums. Approaching museums as social arenas or contact zones, the dissertation exposes power struggles in museums and dislodges a whole set of assumptions about what museums are and how they function. For the study I selected the following museums with anthropological mandates: MacBride Museum (Whitehorse), Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (Yellowknife), and Vancouver Museum (Vancouver). The three museums were chosen because their geographical proximity to large communities of Aboriginal Peoples enabled an exploration of the changing relationships between them. Historically, museums have held the power to classify and define Aboriginal Peoples. Relatively recently, however Aboriginal Peoples have in various ways (by imposing constraints on how they and their cultures are exhibited, and through land ...