Entangled Histories: The Oak Native American Ethnographic Collection and Indigenous Reclamation (Online Lecture)

The Institute for Human Science and Culture Speaker Series features Indigenous experts and scholars discussing the harmful historical collecting practices that brought ancestral belongings into museums and private collections; efforts to reconnect collection items to their communities of origin; and the reparative work of reclaiming communities’ cultural objects.

Registration is required for this free online event. All registrants will receive a link to the livestream via email prior to the event.

About the Event

Entangled Histories: The Oak Native American Ethnographic Collection and Indigenous Reclamation

Dr. Meranda Roberts will discuss the colonial history of collecting and exhibiting Native American cultural items in academic spaces, such as the Oak Native American Gallery in the Institute for Human Science and Culture. Additionally, learn what it takes for Native communities to reunite and reclaim their cultural items from such institutions.

About the Speaker

Dr. Meranda Roberts is a citizen of the Yerington Paiute Tribe and Chicana. She has a Ph.D. in Native American History and an M.A. in Public History from the University of California, Riverside. Meranda has worked as a co-curator at the Field Museum of Natural History, where she developed brand new content for the museum’s Native American exhibition hall, “Native Truths: Our Stories. Our Voices.” She curated the 2023 Native American Invitational Exhibition at Idyllwild Arts titled “Still We Smile: Humor as Correction and Joy” and is currently guest curating the exhibition “Continuity: Cahuilla Basket Weavers and their Legacies,” which will open at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College in Winter 2024. Meranda is also a visiting professor at Pomona College in the art history department.

Meranda’s passion lies in holding colonial institutions, like museums, accountable for the harmful narratives they have created about Indigenous people. She is dedicated to reconnecting Indigenous collection items with their descendants and telling these items’ stories in a way that adequately expresses their meaning to the communities they come from. Using Indigenous methodologies and anti-colonial pedagogy, Meranda’s work exemplifies ways in which we can work toward a more equitable future.

About the Institute

Located on the 3rd and 4th Floors of the Cummings Center, The Institute for Human Science and Culture (IHSC) is a hands-on humanities center on the corner of campus and community.

The mission of the IHSC is to promote the exploration and appreciation of the widespread human experience, both local and global, through the activation of museum collections. The IHSC enriches The University of Akron student experience with arts and culture activities, speakers, exhibitions, and programs, facilitating engagement and connections among UA departments to discover new and creative ways to nurture learning. We connect UA and Akron communities to learn from each other through arts and culture, expertise and experience, and hands-on teaching and learning.