Who Owns Our Cultural Heritage? — Museums, Repatriation, and Appropriation

Who should decide how the stories and artifacts of a cultural heritage are shared with the world? For a long time, the assumption has been that as long as culture’s stories are told, it doesn’t matter who’s telling them. But who would you trust to tell your story? Museums of human civilization and culture are at the center of this conversation. Some are returning antiquities taken by colonial force. Others are consulting with indigenous communities to reframe the stories exhibits tell. But what’s lost when museum’s make the question “Who owns this cultural artifact?” their primary focus? In this episode of the podcast, we visit the famed Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford to understand how 19th century ideas of white European superiority are perpetuated in modern museums. We speak with a prominent skeptic of repatriation who believes it undermines the power of museums to help us understand history and our place in it. We also hear a story of spiritual healing prompted by the return of Native American items by a small museum in Massachusetts. And then we make the issue modern and personal with a conversation about what cultural appropriation looks like in daily life and how we can appreciate, rather than appropriate. Podcast Guests: Marenka Thompson-Odlum, PhD, Research Curator, Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford Tiffany Jenkins, journalist and author of “Keeping Their Marbles: How the Treasures of the Past Ended Up in Museums and Why They Should Stay There” Ann E. Meilus Esq., President of the Barre Museum Association Manny Iron Hawk, member of the Lakota Nation; Spokesperson for HAWK (Heartbeat at Wounded Knee) 1890 Survivor Descendants society Renee Iron Hawk, member of the Lakota Nation; Secretary for HAWK 1890 Survivor Descendants society Mia Moody-Ramirez, PhD Chair of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media, Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences