Who shall remain nameless?makers and collectors in MOA’s Nuu-chah-nulth basketry collection
This thesis grew out of a close examination of the UBC Museum of Anthropology Nuu-chah-nulth basketry collection and the related information about it held by the Museum. While examining the Museum’s documentation of this collection it became evident that the Museum had records of the names of mo...
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2009
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4984 |
| Summary: | This thesis grew out of a close examination of the UBC Museum of
Anthropology Nuu-chah-nulth basketry collection and the related
information about it held by the Museum. While examining the
Museum’s documentation of this collection it became evident that
the Museum had records of the names of most of the collectors of
these baskets but the Museum had few records which identified the
makers of the baskets. This paper examines the documents
surrounding the Nuu-chah-nulth basketry collection as artifacts in
their own right. It explores why certain forms of information (in
this case the names of the collectors) became associated with a
group of objects while other forms of information (the names of the
makers) were not. It suggests that the ideological frameworks
reflected in the colonial foundations of both private and museum
collecting and the interpenetrating categories of “Primitive Art”,
“Tourist Art” and “Women’s Arts”/”Crafts” have produced a system of
values whereby certain objects and forms of information were deemed
to be of greater importance than others. It concludes that the
increasing number of makers who are being identified in recent
years at this Museum signals shifts in the above mentioned
categories as they are criticized and reinterpreted and it also
reflects changes in the relationships between collectors, museums,
and the peoples from whom their collections originate. |
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