Reframing Old Narratives: Tools for Navigating the Unanswerable

ID: WMA2026_529

Track:

An examination of communication strategies used by staff at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum— a tribal institution— to navigate complex visitor interactions & offer the public a better understanding of how traditional knowledge is shared. By utilizing a step-by-step approach dubbed the “Not Quite Sure” tool to address questions that don’t have a clear answer, aren’t meant to be answered, or are outdated, staff are empowered to shift perspectives and facilitate more effective learning outcomes.

Session Information

Format: Regular session/panel (roundtable, single speaker, etc.)

Uniqueness: Our session reframes a traditional method of visitor engagement, helping all to grow their skills in discernment and practice being respectful of sensitive community knowledge.

Objectives: Participants will leave with a customizable dialogue flowchart and increased confidence in responding to challenging interactions while maintaining cultural integrity and institutional values. Participants will learn to reframe narratives through culturally grounded practice by drafting at least 2 revised responses or interpretive strategies applicable to their own institutions. Finally, participants will outline a brief implementation or training plan tailored to their organization that supports consistent messaging, protection of sensitive knowledge, and improved visitor learning experiences.

Engagement: Panelists will review a communication tool titled the NQS chart, which is a dialogue flowchart describing several visitor scenarios involving questions that range from offensive or outdated, to inconsequential or prying. Each participant will receive access to the tool and be coached on how to rewrite it for their own content by polling some of their institution’s most common questions.

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Curators/Scientists/Historians Marketing & Communications (Including Social Media) Other 

Professional Level: All levels 

Scalability: The outcomes from our proposed session is applicable across many roles, from Education staff to volunteers or visitor services. This allows multiple organizations to utilize this tool and potentially integrate it into their onboarding process because it is not limited to anything but content knowledge—if an institution has exhibit content that is sensitive in nature (whether culturally, politically, religiously, or otherwise) the NQS tool can be used.

Participants