"Museum in Color: Building Pathways to Professionalism for Cultural Workers Through Research and Community"

• In Event: Energy, Climate, & Insurgent Ecologies: New Directions in Black Environmental History

Abstract

This paper explores how cultural workers, as defined by UNESCO, which includes artists, archaeologists, activists, and museum professionals at historical sites are implementing environmental sustainability programs rooted in Africana traditions. These programs deepen our understanding of sustainable ecological traditions used by the enslaved people and generationally shared within the Black community, and are especially important for communities that have experienced grave disparities that directly impact their collective holistic health. These programs function as incubators for ecosystem restoration projects and for efforts to improve public health within Black communities. At James Madison’s Montpelier, for instance, The Montpelier Descendants Committee are working alongside the Montpelier archaeologists to implement programs and experiences that amplify the historical research and open pathways for healing, education, and community reclamation for the enslaved descendant community. At the Wyckoff House Museum in Canarsie/Flatbush in Brooklyn, NY, the small museum staff runs a local farm as well as historically informed environmental public programming on Dutch colonial life and culture. These programs, as well as others, reaffirm the local Black community's connection to the environment and the resilience of the community’s shared cultural values. I argue that these programs take inspiration from Whitney Battle-Baptiste's 2011 book Black Feminist Archaeology amongst other methodologies and demonstrate how historical research, and archaeology can actively inform restorative practices for local cultural workers, ultimately helping reclaim historical sites as places for environmental justice and holistic health.

Author

• Myriah Martin