Object Talk with Dr. Rosemary Ahtuangaruak
1 media/IMG_1639_thumb.JPG 2019-12-09T21:10:22+00:00 Nora Vaughan c4d0dfcb016cc2b6466c0d7e15600845a1095a29 11 8 Rosemary Ahtuangaruak (Inupiaq) describes each object in the collection to students in the class "Learning with Indigenous Material Culture." Most of the objects were passed around the classroom. plain 2020-07-06T17:16:05+00:00 Chie Sakakibara Amy Margaris 43ccc4f4b4387e0ce6997a32d2aec5bf48512042This page is referenced by:
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Mission Statement and Project Contributors
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MISSION STATEMENT
We are students, faculty, and staff at Oberlin College, a liberal arts college that currently stewards a historic collection of cultural items from the North American Arctic, primarily Alaska.The primary goal of this project is to help promote and expand knowledge of Indigenous people and their lands by facilitating preservation, access, and interpretation of Oberlin’s Arctic Ethnography Collection for present and future generations. We seek to achieve collaboration and inclusivity through sustaining relationships between students and Alaskan Native communities in order to learn together.
If you have questions, comments, or other input, please reach out to us at amy.margaris@oberlin.edu. We value feedback and collaboration as a part of this process.
PROJECT CONTRIBUTORS
Oberlin College Student Curators
Gabriel Baskin, Iris Bennet, Emily Bermudez, Oliver Brown, Emma DeRogatis-Frilingos, Lars Dreith, Seare Farhat, Madeleine Feola, Laila Hadar, Eleanor Haskin, Alaina Helm (Lead Scalar Project Curator), Arielle Hernandez Lyons, Eric Hughett, Amelia Lewis, Cat Mavrich, Wolf Moser, Mallika Pandey, Geena Tognini, Piper Triggs, Sarah Stopak, Nora Vaughan, Asher Wulfman, and Ellen Zimmerman.
Amy Margaris
Oberlin College Department of Anthropology
Megan S. Mitchell
Academic Engagement & Digital Initiatives Coordinator, Oberlin College LibrariesRosemary Ahtuangaruak (Iñupiaq)
Alaska Native environmental, cultural, and political leader
Hon. Deg. Oberlin College 2017
Oberlin College Consultant in Residence, Fall 2019
We would also like to acknowledge and thank Heath Patten, Chie Sakakibara, Caroline Budnick, and Kenneth Pratt for their assistance and contributions that helped to make this project possible.
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Please explore the collection of Alaska Native cultural materials housed at Oberlin College and learn from our online exhibits here.
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The Collection at Oberlin (1889 to present)
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History since the collection has been at Oberlin
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The Oberlin College Ethnographic Collection is comprised of 1,600 ethnographic objects that were acquired in the late 19th and 20th centuries as donations from missionaries, naturalists, and lay people. Some of these objects were obtained through exchange with the Smithsonian, like the Oberlin Arctic Collection.
Oberlin College acquired the Arctic collection through institutional trading practices in 1889. During this time, The Smithsonian frequently distributed teaching collections composed of artifacts from the Arctic, Subarctic, and American Southwest. The Oberlin Arctic Collection is roughly double the size of the average teaching collection distributed by the Smithsonian.
Eventually, the Arctic Collection was incorporated into the Oberlin College Museum (founded in 1895 as a natural history cabinet), but the trade itself was conducted by Albert A. Wright, professor of geology and natural history, prior to the museum’s formation. During this time, these items were acquired for the enrichment of curriculum in the natural sciences, not for their scholarly value.
It is unclear what happened to the arctic collection upon arrival at Oberlin, as there are no records to indicate that it was studied, exhibited, or used as educational material in classrooms. The Oberlin College Museum closed in 1959, and the Arctic Collection–as part of the larger ethnological collection–became administered by the Anthropology department. A lot of the collection fell from public awareness, and it was only rediscovered in recent years.
The Arctic Collection is currently being housed under the supervision of the Anthropology Department at Oberlin college, where it is being overseen by the Associate Professor & Chair of Anthropology and Archaeological Studies, Amy Margaris. The Oberlin College Ethnographic Collection has been digitally archived. The collection has only recently assumed a new pedagogical role as the centerpiece of a class offered to students through the Anthropology Department. This class is working to understand where the collection fits in with its historical ties to the Smithsonian and ties to indigenous Alaskan communities today. To do this, the class conducted, recorded, indexed interviews, and created an accessible database in an effort for knowledge repatriation and democratizing access to this collection. The class focuses on themes such as cocuration, indigenous “maker movements” and knowledge repatriation, physical repatriation and the law, and digital approaches to making physical collections more accessible in an effort to inform the decisions made about the future of the collection.
(Margaris and Grimm, 2011).
