In response to recent media coverage and queries from community members and museum members, the team at the Denver Art Museum’s Native Arts department and I wish to share expanded details about our work with Indigenous communities, particularly in relation to cultural property and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).
First, I want to apologize and take full responsibility for my comments quoted in recent news coverage regarding our repatriations and Indigenous Arts of North America. Specifically, I am sorry for the hurt, pain, and anger these comments have caused Indigenous communities and specifically members of the Tlingit and Haida tribes in Alaska, as well as the DAM’s members, supporters, and visitors. Those comments are not a reflection of how I, or any of us in the DAM Native Arts team, feel about the artworks, objects, and relationships we are entrusted with from Indigenous Nations and communities. While it was poorly expressed, I was trying to convey that decisions concerning NAGPRA claims and repatriation processes are complex and require sincere discussions between the museum and originating communities.
An apology is empty without restorative action, and we are renewing our commitment to ensuring our internal policies are in line with the sincere respect my team and the museum community have for Indigenous communities. The museum staff is in the process of reviewing NAGPRA policies and adjusting them to better serve Indigenous communities, support and facilitate repatriation claims, and to partner equitably with Native tribes in the process.
At DAM we follow both the letter and the spirit of NAGPRA. Since the 1990s, we have repatriated 30 items under NAGPRA and another 18 were voluntarily returned to originating communities outside of NAGPRA. The DAM and my team in the Native Arts department are honored to forge and nurture connections with citizens of Indigenous Nations and we are committed to supporting the process for cultural repatriation claims. We will continue to work to improve our internal and external processes to support positive and helpful interactions with Indigenous nations in the future. In the meantime, the DAM and our Native Arts team are grateful for every message we have received offering feedback on this matter and offering suggestions and guidance on how we can improve and grow in our communications and relationships with Indigenous communities. The DAM is fortunate to have dedicated community members who care deeply about the issues, and we thank them for continuing to guide us in all that we do. While we have strong, respectful, and reciprocal relationships with many communities across the continent, the museum must work to reconcile and strengthen the relationship with the Central Council Tlingit Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (CCTHITA), and these kinds of efforts are where we will focus our attention for the foreseeable future.
We look forward to sharing more details about our work with NAGPRA and Indigenous communities in this space soon—please keep checking back!
