When the modern museum was founded in the mid-1800s, curators and researchers collected wondrous objects from nature and cultures around the globe. Museums amassed huge collections that established capitals in Europe and America as places for learning and enlightenment. These collections were almost always managed by credentialed scholars and administrators, while the source communities—the people whose heritage had been taken to distant museums—had no say in how their culture was curated, studied, and exhibited. Additionally, almost most collections were gathered legitimately, some were taken in ways that violated the cultural traditions of source communities. Some, especially human burials, were taken without the consent of descendants. Some were even stolen.

In recent years, museums and source communities have begun to reimagine their relationship. Instead of keeping source communities at arm length, museums are embracing them. Instead of confrontation, there is now collaboration. Instead of seeing museums as a problem, source communities—Indigenous peoples and Native Americans in particular—are seeing museums as partners in preserving and sharing their cultures.

Partnerships cannot begin, however, if there is no meeting ground. Museums in Europe with Native American collections have struggled to connect with living Native Americans. They are literally an ocean apart. There are language barriers. There are minimal online databases that provide Native Americans access to their heritage.

This project thus envisions creating a meeting ground, a beginning point, to bring together museums across Europe and Native peoples in North America. Museums will share a basic description of their institutions, collections, and contact information—while tribes will share their contact information, their museums (if they have them), and lists of objects they are particularly interested in. This is a first phase of transparent information sharing—a digital space that bridges space and brings together groups of people who have been at a distance for too long.

We would like to thank the German Marshall Fund for which, this project would not be made possible. We would also like to thank our project partners who represent both tribal and non-tribal communities and organizations. Their participation and guidance have been and will continue to be vital to this ongoing conversation and to Restoring Ancestral Connections’ success.

Sincerely,

Restoring Ancestral Connections