An Aesthetic Apology

Well it seems like our parents, marketers, and Madonna aren't the only people trying to keep up with the times anymore - the time has come to add museums to this list. It's strange to think that museums, institutions dedicated to preserving and showcasing history to the public, must also rethink their approach at displaying the past. As much as we may think that history doesn't change, we're wrong. As the present changes, so does our construal of the past.

The realization that museums must update their exhibits to keep up with modern thought and opinion hit me when I first walked through the door to The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University and was confronted by the Native American exhibit. 

This first exhibit showcases a ledger of drawings done by a Lakota Sioux tribe member illustrating their ways of life and their encounters with U.S. citizens and other Native Americans (Read more).

Examples of drawings done by a Lakota Sioux tribe member. These drawings were found by a U.S. soldier in a ledger after battle. They depict the tribe's encounters with all different kinds of U.S. citizens and also with other Native American tribes. They also depict many important practices in the Native American culture such as painting your horse. The actual act of drawing wartime events was a common practice done in order to summarize the significant feats done in war. 

As we all now know, the original British colonists and the Native Americans did not have the most amiable relationship. There was war, bloodshed, forced relocation, assimilation, and complete disregard for human life. Until recently, this history was either omitted from the curriculum or glazed over superficially in elementary school.

But good news everybody! In 2009, the United States offered an official apology to the Native Americans. I guess this was our way of saying, “We’re sorry for every unspeakable thing that our ancestors did to yours. We hope that we can move on from our past troubles and look forward to a peaceful coexistence.”     

(*Not a real quote)

How can we do this? How do we diffuse our dissonant thoughts that America got to be the “Land of the Free” only by using its imperial boot to squash its adversaries? How do we simply forget everything that happened?

The answer? We don’t.

Museums should try to show, through admittance of responsibility, that they are aware of the discrepancy and that they will not hide the truth. In order to do this though, museums such as the Peabody museum have to change their ways of exhibiting people of different cultures.  In effect, Peabody began to become more of a memorial than an archaeology museum - one that focalizes on trying to reach a place of healing rather than living in a state of feigned improvement.

Paul Williams, in his book’s discussion of memorial museums, explains this expanding necessity for museums to memorialize an event due to the fact that today’s shared culture is a culture of therapy. All that we’re trying to do is heal. We see this with the 9/11 memorial – now that the construction is finished, it offers a form of closure to the event even though it will forever be engraved in American culture.

But this approach has shortcomings. Everyone reacts differently to an event, so how are we supposed to appease everyone in the memorialization process?

It’s almost like a funeral – some people are there to morn the loss of a loved one, others are there to rejoice in their existence and happy life, and still others are there who never really liked the dead guy in the first place and they’re only there to show their girlfriend that they’re a sensitive guy. So what kind of procession do you have?

This is the struggle that the Peabody museum is facing today. It is trying to come to terms with how to display the truth of the Native American and colonist’s history with as minimal backlash as possible. Although the Peabody museum is only an archaeology museum dedicated to showing the way of life of different cultures around the world through artifacts, it is treating the Native American exhibit as a sort of memorial museum.

For this reason, I see the exhibit on the Lakota drawings almost as a means for the museum to memorialize them and acknowledge the atrocities and misfortunes brought to them by the United States. 

There are various examples of evidence for this strategically placed throughout this front exhibit, the first of which being a plaque with a very brief overview of the history of the Native Americans and the U.S. citizens. They do mention the atrocities that the U.S. implemented on the Native Americans, but they do so very subtly and not very graphically. The next example of the museum’s attempt to align with common thought is this plaque outlining stereotypes of Native Americans today and how current protest on behalf of tribes are changing how we think about these stereotypes.

This plaque is mounted on the wall in the Native American exhibit at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. It describes the current issue of Native American stereotypes in collegiate sports and how the protest to racist names and depictions of the "classic" Native American has brought light upon a once overlooked area of racism. 

In Peabody’s attempt to acknowledge the racist stereotypes about the Native Americans, though, their means of displaying this plaque fall short. As shown in this photo, the plaque is the only thing on this blank wall. All of the walls around it are covered with drawings, but this plaque remains solitary and almost aesthetically bland. Of course there are ways of explaining this choice, but every reason seems to me an excuse for not knowing how else to frame the topic of stereotypes.

Although the content of this plaque about stereotypes shows the Peabody Museum's desire to highlight issues of racism today, the manner in which the museum exhibited this information is poorly executed. In a room full of colorful drawings and glass cases full of artifacts, this plaque seems to lack credibility in its solitude. 

Paul Williams also talks about how, in memorial museums, a sense of togetherness and unity in differences is targeted. We want to imagine ourselves as one. This aspect of memorial museums is exhibited in a self-portrait of a contemporary Native American, T.C. Cannon, as a U.S. soldier during the War in Vietnam. Just the fact that Cannon drew this self-portrait in his uniform is evidence that he experienced a mélange of cultural identity. The Peabody museum is trying to celebrate this coupling to show that we are on our way to achieving this togetherness and eventually heal.

This illustration entitled "On Drinking Beer in Vietnam in 1967" is a self-portrait drawn by contemporary Native American T.C. Cannon of him and his friend Kirby Feathers dressed in their American soldier uniforms. This picture illustrates Paul Williams' idea that memorial museums are trying to create a sense of "oneness" that everyone in the world can identify with. With this depiction of a combination of American and Native American identities, the Peabody Museum seeks to integrate this idea in its exhibit and show how this "oneness" it a means of healing. 

So it seems that the main use of museums is no longer to showcase culture. Instead, they are forums for current dialogues. Being as this practice is still new, there is a certain buffer for the lack of full transparency exhibited by the Peabody museum on certain issues, but it is clear that they are trying and on the right track.