Museums and Source Communities

The growth of collaboration between museums and source communities – the people from whom collections originate – is one of the most important developments in modern museum practice. This volume combines some of the most influential published research in this emerging field with newly commissioned essays on the issues, problems and lessons involved.
Focusing on museums in North America, the Pacific and the United Kingdom, the book highlights three areas which demonstrate the new developments most clearly: *The museum as field site or ‘contact zone’ – a place which source community members enter for purposes of consultation and collaboration *Visual repatriation – the use of photography to return images of ancestors, historical moments and material heritage to source communities *Exhibition case studies – these are discussed to reveal the implications of cross-cultural and collaborative research for museums, and how such projects have challenged established attitudes and practices As the first overview of its kind, this collection will be essential reading for museum staff working with source communities, for community members involved with museum programmes, and for students and academics in museum studies and social anthropology.

Author Biography

Laura Peers is Curator for the Americas collections, Pitt Rivers Museum, Lecturer in the School of Anthropology, and Fellow, Linacre College, at the University of Oxford. She has published on First nations cultural history.
Alison K. Brown is Research Manager (Human History) for Glasgow Museums. She has worked with First Nations communitites in Western Canada, and has published on collecting histories and contemporary museum practice.