by FrannMarie on January 23, 2012
Abstract Reservations about the digitization of cultural collections center on the wish for universal access and scalability. This push toward the digital can infringe on the different levels of access (or non-access) often required by indigenous communities, particularly for secret and/or sacred cultural objects. Consultation is necessary before digitizing cultural objects in order to ensure that digitization delivers the promised benefits of broadened access while respecting traditional knowledge and copyright. Culturally sensitive consultation needs to include source communities, diasporic populations, museum and cultural experts. It is only then that the Web can potentially revitalize culture, harness the power of the visual, and connect cultural objects to stories of everyday and ceremonial use and meanings. This paper is based on open-ended interviews in Australia with 27 people from the Pacific diaspora and 17 museum experts and specialists on Pacific cultures. It brings the voices of the Pacific into the discussion of digitization of cultural collections.
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- Supriya Singh
- Meredith Blake
Article first published online: 9 JAN 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2011.00132.x
by FrannMarie on January 23, 2012
Abstract National museums play an important role in representing national identities in complex and culturally diverse societies. The National Museum of Vietnamese History was established by the government in 1958 to preserve the country’s national heritage and present a discourse of nation building from prehistory up to 1945, when the country gained independence from French colonialism. Among the museum’s permanent exhibits, a collection of Champa sculptures is presented in the rotunda, separately from the main historical displays. The Champa Kingdom, approximately from the second to the nineteenth centuries in the present day central Vietnam, is known for its outstanding artistic and architectural achievements. In 1832, Champa was absorbed by Đại Việt and the Cham people became an ethnic minority group in present-day Vietnam. This paper analyzes the representation of the museum’s Cham collection and explores how the politics of display of contested materials has changed through time and in forming national identity construction in the museum.
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Article first published online: 9 JAN 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2011.00122.x
