ABSTRACT
This chapter features a conversation between Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture curators Sven Haakanson Jr., Holly Barker, and Sara L. Gonzalez that highlights how to challenge the colonial narratives and legacies of museums and their practices. Haakanson and Barker share how their life experiences have influenced the work that they do as curators and the approaches they use to ethically collaborate with Indigenous and descendant communities across the world. Both prioritize putting community voices first, above that of the experts. Their discussion of decolonial praxis also demonstrates how important it is to listen and hear the voices of communities who have traditionally been silenced in and by museums and anthropology. Drawing on their experience creating the new Culture is Living exhibit at the Burke Museum, they show how they were able to put this approach into practice to start changing how the museum engages with Indigenous peoples and whose voices and knowledge is shared with the public through exhibits.
