You know like, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” but with almost no Kate Hudson and a lot more provenance!
For the last two weeks, I worked in the Oneida Nation Museum archive as part of the Summer TLAM Community Engagement course. You may be wondering: “You were only there for 10 days! What made this experience any different from any other internship, aside from it’s brevity? What could you have learned in such a short amount of time?”
You’d be surprised!
With our previous TLAM experience, we already knew there is a need for libraries and archives––traditionally western institutions––to incorporate indigenous values into exhibit design, maintenance of collections, patron service, and collection development. The Oneida Nation Museum provides an excellent model for this integration. It shares the Oneida worldview, important cultural tenets, major treaties, land loss and regain.
Since we were in the community longer, though, in addition to working on our archival project, we were able to attend events (like Loretta Metoxen’s Wampum belt talk, Sunny’s Faithkeeper Presentation, and Myriah’s special tour of the Oneida Nation Museum.) We made it a priority to learn about Oneida culture and history. And with this knowledge, we understood the collection better.
In ten short days with the incredibly passionate and knowledgeable staff at the Oneida Nation museum, I learned hundreds of little things––especially that creative outreach is collection advocacy. Check out how the museum is using Facebook to creatively highlight the diversity of their collection with “Flashback Fridays.”
Working with an energetic and passionate staff provided me with an excellent example to follow as an archivist-and-collection advocate. I would like to say thank you to everyone at the museum! The entire staff made me feel so welcome and I was truly honored to be able to learn from everyone there. I cannot wait to plan a return visit to Green Bay soon!
-Mary Wise