Tending the Fire in Dark Moon Times: Part II

ID: WMA2026_648

Track:

For many indigenous communities, darkness is a time of creative genesis and regeneration, a time for hope beyond the fear. From fiscal constraints to grants that have disappeared to federal staff that are no longer in positions of leadership and support, the impacts and despair is real and reaches across our museum field. In these troubling times, we will hear from multiple museum practitioners who will share their programs, exhibitions, practices and beliefs that will help attendees keep the fire alive, stirring our passions and purposes. 

Session Information

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

Uniqueness: This session seeks to give us reason and the tools to keep hope alive, spanning the gamut from museum staffers to collaborators, from curators to artists. It will involve hands on activities to help participants process their grief and focus on healing and regeneration.

Objectives: This session will: (1) recognize the emotional, spiritual and physical toll borne by those in the museum field and validate those experiences in a shared setting; (2) engage in activities that will help heal participants, individually and collectively; (3) provide tools that can be employed beyond the conference and shared with others who did not attend the session.

Engagement:

• Presentation on Hawai’i Triennial 25 by co-curator Noelle Kahanu, with a focal point on one particular installation, the ‘umeke la’au.- Presentation + hands on activity with artist Meleanna Meyer, where participants will ““fill up their ‘umeke”” then share with each other’.- Additional presentation by Native American museum staff on life-affirming tribal programs/practices

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Curators/Scientists/Historians Development and Membership Officers Events Planning Other 

Professional Level: All levels 

Scalability: This activity and the tools and techniques can be easily shared with others beyond this session, from small institutions to large ones.

Participants