NAGPRA and Native American Voices: Collaboration between Museums and Source Communities

This study looks at how the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act influenced the process of museum collaboration at the Grand Rapids Public Museum and how the exhibit that resulted from this collaboration worked to incorporate the voices of the Anishinabek, the native people of West Michigan, into the displays. These collaborative processes have become popular ways of incorporating the voices of source communities into exhibits that display their history and culture. I studied this collaborative process through an interview with a curator at the museum, examining sources created by the museum on the collaboration, and analysis of the physical exhibit. This research revealed the ways in which NAGPRA made it necessary for the museum to begin ongoing collaborative efforts. My analysis of the exhibit looks at the ways in which the exhibit succeeded in incorporating the voices of the Anishinabek into the displays so that they could tell their story in their own words. It also considers ways in which the exhibit continues to enforce discrepancies in power between museums and the source communities they work with