Critical and reflective uses of new media technologies in tribal museums

Abstract

This paper advocates that tribal museums adopt a critical and reflexive approach towards using new media technologies to provide digital access to their collections, in support of their agendas of cultural revitalization and self-representation. We present a model which is intended to reveal the important social and cultural factors which should influence the design and implementation of technological systems of access to tribal museum collections, and we show how our model is working in the context of a particular tribal museum – the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center of Zuni, New Mexico, USA.

Keywords:

• tribal museums
• digital heritage
• technology
• community collaboration
• traditional knowledge
• Native Americans