Examining Fort Vancouver Curatorial Practices: How Do Museums Interact With and Represent the Public?

Historically, the work of curators has always been somewhat opaque and mysterious to the public, with knowledge of curatorial practices only being passed from mentor to student, creating a small elite of those in the know, which is something that has only begun to change in the modern era (Meyer-Krahmer 2015). So, if museum operations are not accessible to the public, what does that mean for communities whose culture and history are being presented by the museum? How are they meant to reclaim their cultural heritage? How are they supposed to approach conversations regarding misrepresentation in museum exhibits? Through this thesis I hope to explore how museums could operate their collections departments in order to better serve Indigenous communities. These best practices include being open about curatorial practices, giving Indigenous communities control over their cultural materials, and giving Indigenous communities the space to tell the story of their own histories and cultures. In order to support the creation of these best practices, I will examine case studies from a number of different museums located around the globe, including but not limited to the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium, the British Museum in England, the Manitoba Museum in Canada, the Portland Art Museum, the Heard Museum in Pheonix, Arizona, and the Peabody Museum at Harvard. I will additionally be drawing on my own experiences working at the Walt Disney Family Museum, the Exploratorium, the De Young, and the Legion of Honor, all of which are located in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.