Long Awaited Accountability: Standards of Excellence for Museums with Native American Collections

Deana Dartt, Principal of the Live Oak Consulting, and Elysia Poon, the Indian Arts Research Center director at the School for Advanced Research, explore the development of a Native and ally informed set of Core Standards for Museums with Native American Collections (CSMNAC), an effort in partnership with the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and supported by the School for Advanced Research (SAR). As an adaptation of AAM's Core Standards, the document will serve as an actionable guide for all areas of work within museums that hold Native collections, including collections stewardship; education and interpretation; mission and planning; leadership and organizational structure; financial stability; facilities; and risk management. The standards will also provide a set of tools that will enable museums to move confidently in the direction of indigenizing and sensitizing practices. The session explores the history, context, and development of the standards as well as provides attendees the opportunity to offer examples of best practices for use in the case study section of the document. This video was filmed at the 2022 ATALM annual conference held in Temecula, California on October 25-27, 2022.