FROM EXPLORATION TO EQUITY: A MUSEUM’S JOURNEY TOWARD DECOLONIZATION

Abstract

In the context of a societal shift calling upon institutions to be more equitable, the movement to decolonize museums requires new approaches to collecting and presenting human remains and cultural artifacts. Nearly thirty years after the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the San Diego Museum of Man is radically modifying its relationship with indigenous communities of the Kumeyaay Nation, on whose homeland the museum is situated and whose ancestors and belongings were once held by the museum without permission. The museum’s bold new policies and programming focus offer a complex, but necessary, model for the field.