Exhibiting Kinship Felicia and Meranda

Catch up with us once again as we discuss what has changed since our last check-in at ATALM 2022. In this episode, we talk about where our lives are at, including Felicia’s new job as the Education, Programs, and Volunteer Manager for her community’s museum and Meranda’s new exhibition “Continuity: Cahuilla Basket Weavers and their Legacies” opening at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College in February 2024. 

Meranda talks about what it’s like being a professor, if we can still use “decolonization” when discussing museums, and our hopes for the next year, including podcast dream guests, re-interviewing former guests, and media help! 



Resources mentioned in the podcasts: 

https://www.aam-us.org/2023/10/26/resisting-the-colonial-imagination-the-role-of-exhibition-design-in-the-decolonial-project/



https://pueblopottery.vilcek.org/?utm_source=exhibition&utm_medium=website&utm_id=groundedinclay&utm_content=met



https://mailchi.mp/pomona/continuity-press-release?e=c78c7dd95f



https://conservation.ucla.edu/inclusion/care-conservation-of-indigenous-collections-workshop/?fbclid=IwAR1u4oJlslR2tI-_FcugQw7KXVuDFaW2p19fHIVosxTwduHqmZu4lWALzLs 

On #IndigenousPeoplesDay2022 we met at the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums' annual conference, hosted by the Pechanga Band of Indians, to record a special live (via zoom) episode of our award winning podcast!

Not only was this the first time we recorded an episode in person, but was also the first time Meranda shared (with this audience) her experience working as a Native co-curator at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Our conversation focused on her work on the recently renovated exhibition hall, Native Truths. We had a great discussion about the good, and the bad, that comes with trying to decolonize a colonial institution! 

Born and raised in Alaska, Nazune Menka is Koyukon Athabascan and Lumbee. She holds a J.D. from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers School of Law with a Certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy Program and serves as Of Counsel at Rosette, LLP a national law firm serving Indian Country. Nazune joined Berkeley Law to serve as the Tribal Cultural Resources Project Policy Fellow in September 2020 which is conducting outreach to California Indigenous communities to assess how the Project can support them as they exercise their sovereignty, and build their capacities to advocate for the preservation, protection, and repatriation of sacred sites, homelands, ancestral remains, and cultural heritage. The Project is supported by a grant from the Native American Heritage Commission and is working with the Pro Bono Program at the Law School to engage pro bono law students in the Project. This bio is provided via: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/our-faculty/faculty-profiles/nazune-menka-koyukon-athabascan-lumbee/#tab_profile 

A short and sweet, unedited catch-up with Felicia and Meranda. Tune in for career and podcast updates. 

Episode 5 features artist, community organizer, Indigenous rights advocate, and museum scholar, Courtney Little Axe (Absentee Shawnee/Northern Cheyenne/Seminole). In this episode, we hear from Courtney about the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGRPA), and her experience working on repatriation in museums. 

Episode 4 features brilliant curator, artist, and designer, Jordan Poorman Cocker(Kiowa/Tongan). In this episode, we hear from Jordan about how her culture and identity inform the work that she does as a Curatorial Scholar of Indigenous Art funded by the Henry Luce Foundation at the Gilcrease Museum.