Cool burning the collection: Museum research as a regenerative act

Abstract

Ethnographic collections, as material repositories of historical relationships, are powerful bodies of intercultural knowledge and exchange. Indigenous people have been active and influential in the building of these collections and continue today to be critical to the ongoing interpretation and engagement of such repositories. When faced with the tangled, overgrowth of values accumulated around collected objects over time, regenerative processes can offer new life. By applying a metaphorical ‘cool burn’ it is hoped that space can be created where new shoots of knowledge can emerge. This research takes the form of a digital article twinned with an exegetical reflection to extend the notion of Indigenous engagement and so consider some of the regenerative potentials of collection research when Indigenous philosophies and concepts drive research enquiry and more importantly, frame outcomes.