ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers the architecture of the metropolitan Indigenous cultural centre through a new lens. There are centres that are serving to 'close the gaps' in opportunity, education and health for Indigenous peoples - statistics that continue to shame settler societies. The range of small Indigenous cultural centres built in regional and remote contexts for specific Indigenous communities is extensive. Many have adopted the typology of the interpretive centre, an architectural and curatorial approach that mediates culture for tourists. Others have grown out of community centres and are specifically concerned with social support and education of Indigenous people by Indigenous people. The Museum of Anthropology in British Columbia and the National Museum of Ethnology in Osakaare examples here. New institutions developed over the following two decades that recognised culture as a living phenomenon and the term 'Indigenous cultural centre' was coined.
