Dis/ordered assemblages of disability in museums

• Main Authors: Rieger, Janice, Strickfaden, Megan
• Other Authors: Hadley, B, McDonald, D
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Routledge 2019
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/130610/

Museums are spaces of power and care. They are institutions that present assemblages (Deleuze & Guattari 2002), which are reconstructions and representations of history and societal values, and thus are partial realities that curate human existence. These assemblages cannot ever represent the totality of human existence because it is never possible to do so, and yet these assemblages are embedded with power because choices are made about what ought or ought not be represented within museums (Ott 2013; Bennet 2017). The nature of partial realities is that, at their centre, these are still representations that tell stories of what one would imagine to be the most significant events related to a place (nation, city), with a particular focus on a societal event or issue (war, art, sports, nature, human rights, etc.) and peoples (e.g. immigrants, migrants, First Nations or Indigenous peoples, etc.). Persons attending museums rely on the expertise of historians, curators, archivists, conservators, and exhibition designers to present materials within the museum that focus upon and represent societal values. Most museum visitors are not aware of the power that museums hold, although more and more museum visitors push against narratives which they do not feel to be adequate representations of the places, events, issues, and peoples of society (Hooper-Greenhill 1992, 2000; Anderson 2004; Janes 2009, 2010). Where there is power, there is also care. Historians, curators, archivists, conservators, and exhibition designers take great care in how they assemble materials within museums. Historians seek to find documented information that represents accurate narratives of interest to the societies and eras in which they work. Curators look for evidence of these narratives through artefacts and material things that aid towards showing the relations of things. Archivists and conservators work towards keeping objects of material culture organised and in good condition so that these pieces of human narratives can be used in ...