Jovanna, As you might have guessed from the first response to your question, this is a fairly big question. The National Museum of the American Indian has one perspective on this issue, but you need to remember that NMAI is not only a US government-run entity, but it also puts considerably more emphasis on the needs of Native people than most museums.
What we are all trying to do is balance access to information (which is part of the museum's role) with respecting the cultural beliefs of a part of our constituency. This is a policy question that really needs to be answered (at least in the US) at the governing Board level, since it has legal ramifications (depending on various "right to know" laws and how they are interpreted) and also raises questions of academic freedom (for those museums associated with universities). On the other hand, the civil and religious rights of Native people are also an issue. Some who work with the US repatration law (NAGPRA) consider it to be civil rights legislation, although we should remember that there is nothing in that law that limits what kind of information museums can provide about their collections, not matter how they are classified. One approach you might want to investigate is that of the Field Museum's Anthropology Department, which asks researchers to seek permission from the appropriate tribal entity if they want access to "sensitive" materials. Steve Nash (sn...@fieldmuseum.org), the Head of Anthropology Collections, or Jonathan Haas (jh...@fieldmuseum.org), Curator of North American Anthropology and Archaeology, can tell you more about how the policy was developed and implemented. janice Janice Klein Director, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian jkl...@kendall.edu www.mitchellmuseum.org -----Original Message----- From: Jovanna Scorsone [mailto:jovan...@rom.on.ca] Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 12:01 PM To: mcn-l@mcn.edu Subject: sacred object records Hi, I was wondering how institutions are dealing with records of sacred objects in their collections databases, and who has access to the records? Thanks, Jovanna _________________________________________________________ Jovanna Scorsone Digital Asset Coordinator New Media Resources, ROM Digital Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, CANADA Phone: 416.586.5598 Fax.: 416.586.5642 www.rom.on.ca --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: jkl...@kendall.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
