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Welcome to the Rivers Museums. Matters of Policy podcast, this is a podcast in which we explore the museum's collections development policy,

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speaking with guests from across the globe to delve into the language used and consider what really matters in this policy.

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The Message of Policy podcast series is an initiative of Miranda Thompson of Lim,

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who's the researcher for the Labelling Matters project at the Big Rivers Museum in Oxford.

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The bid for a first is an ethnographic and anthropological museum that collects,

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conserves and displaced material culture from peoples across the globe throughout human history.

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Acknowledging that the bid for Everest Museum was founded within a colonial framework,

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the labelling message project seeks to her and redress its problematic past and the legacies that continue to inform the presence.

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The Labelling Matters project looks into the power of language and refused to ways in

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which language is used in relation to the collections housed at the very first museum.

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The project touches upon many different aspects of language, including textual elements such as object labels,

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microsites and policy documents, as well as visual features pertaining to the museum's displays.

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This political series falls into one such aspect of language.

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Here we review the language used within the museum's collection development policy, or CDP, in shorts.

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This document sets the legal and ethical standards for collection,

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handling and services guideline for processes such as acquisition and disposal of objects.

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Additionally, it touches upon topics such as future collecting, repatriation and treatment of human remains.

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The CDP is refute at least once every five years. The current clip was approved by the museum's governing body in 2016 and is now due for review.

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In light of the museum's commitment to a process of redress and social healing, this project explores areas of improvement within the documents.

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Interviews are conducted by Alexis for Megaman, Bessie Woodhouse and myself.

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Yep, or under the supervision of Marenco, Thompson, Adler.

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We are interning on the Labelling Matters project, as part of which we've looked into the museum's collection development policy.

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We've invited guests to talk about issues within the document in order to get a better understanding of what improvements can be made.

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We speak with a wide range of people working in or with the museum to get insights relating to questions such as does policy match practise,

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who is represented within the document and what role can collection development play in the future?

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These conversations include artists who have commissioned works for a museum, external parties involved with collection development,

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and we speak with staff members working for Typekit rivers and other museums in the fields.

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These conversations will be used to guides the writing process of a renewed collection development

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policy that is representative of the museum's work and mission for the following years.

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Hi, I'm Betty White House, and I'm in the process of completing my NSC,

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a museum studies at the University of Glasgow throughout my postgraduate research focussed

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on the link between possibility and policy within cultural heritage organisations,

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particularly examining how decolonial theory is reflected in daily museum practise.

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This has culminated in my dissertation research,

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which analyses policies and aims to create a framework for organisations to approach the historical legacies,

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specifically looking at public monuments here in Scotland.

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So my research has led me to my internship as part of the Labelling Matters project here.

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And yeah, I'm really excited to get going and start analysing this policy.

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Hi, Amy Baum.

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I live in studying the Netherlands and I've worked as an intern on the Labelling Matters project of the Petroleum Museum since October 2020.

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As part of this internship, I've helped analyse the language of a selection of labels on this plane and museum looked into the use

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of language on the museum's microsites and written blog posts concerning the findings of this analysis.

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I'm also a master's student in Glo One's comparative philosophy at Lady University,

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where I'm currently researching the epistemic value of silence and imperialist history.

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In the future, I hope to work with Western institutions on existential and self-reflexive

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questions regarding the colonial legacies on which these institutions are built.

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Hi, I'm Alexis. I'm an undergraduate student at the University of Oxford reading archaeology and Anthropology.

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I began working as an intern with the Pitt Rivers Museum this year as part of my dissertation research under my dissertation supervisor,

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Marenco Thompson Odium. My research focuses on the internal workings of Western museums like the Pitt Rivers Museum and advancing decolonial measures,

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especially in regards to tensions between museums and university or government regulations and museums and stakeholder communities.

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As part of my internship and dissertation research, I'm following the new collecting award and policy podcast series projects undertaken by

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the Pitt Rivers as part of larger decolonial efforts involving both practise and policy.

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So if you find this podcast interesting, stay tuned for my dissertation and I'm Megan man.

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I'm currently completing my master's degree in museum studies at the University of Toronto.

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I have a huge interest in decolonial theory and in particular repatriation,

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as well as mediaevalism and in the ways that the mediaeval world is represented in museums.

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Of course, I'm not going to do that for this podcast.

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So what I'm mainly wanting to focus on is the ways that we can decolonise how we present information in museums,

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which led me to my ranka, which led me to analysing this policy, which I'm really excited to do on the rest of this podcast.

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Great. So now that's introductions out of the way we're going to look through some of the passages in order to familiarise

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ourselves before we start having our interviews and the subsequent episodes before each of our interviews.

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The guests were given specific passages to look at, as well as the CDP or Collections Department policy as a whole,

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to provide some unique insight into the policy and how it could be changed or altered or interpreted differently,

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depending on what their background and research interests were. In order for you, the listeners to gain a little bit more insight into the policy,

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we're just going to discuss specific passages that we found important in our research.

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A lot of this has come off the back of a workshop that we did do with the Pitt Rivers Museum staff,

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which looked at a lot of these hostages and discussed them wider,

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which will kind of talk out about a little bit at the end of this introductory episode.

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First of all, we're going to look at the mission statement. It's important to note that the mission statement is not the current mission

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statement that is available as part of the museum's strategic plan that was updated.

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This one is from 2015 and is reflected in the collection department policy.

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But as the policy is a public document, it's difficult to kind of.

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Differentiate between this being online and being accessible and then not being

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kind of caveat involved that it doesn't reflect the museum's current statement.

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So we'll look at it, but we'll look at it maybe with a pinch. So first we'll we'll just have a brief reading of the mission statement itself.

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One point one The Museum Statement of Purpose Mission Statement The Pitt Rivers Museum

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aspires to be the best university museum of Anthropology and Archaeology in the world,

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using its unique galleries as the focus for exemplary teaching and research,

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and as an inspirational forum for the sharing of cultural knowledge amongst the widest possible public.

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According to the University of Oxford Statute, the purpose of the Pitt Rivers Museum is to assemble,

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preserve and exhibit the Petrov's Collection and to promote the public understanding of anthropology

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and world archaeology and their teaching and research based on the museum's collections.

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The purpose of this policy is to ensure that the museum accepts and disposes of material according to a recognised

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strategy that is in compliance with national standards and to act as a guide for curatorial decision making.

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In doing so, it will encourage public confidence in the museum as a suitable repository for collections and their future stewardship.

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So I think best to hand over to Megan, who was looking a little bit more in detail about the mission statement.

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Great. Thanks so much, Betty. So the first thing we really wanted to zero in on is this definition of Best University Museum.

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While it is important to recognise that this mission statement isn't in fact the museum's current one,

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it's equally important to note that this is a public document,

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which means that anybody who was looking up the collections development policy would see this mission statement as the museum's guiding light.

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And since we don't believe that this really reflects the rivers is true intentions anymore,

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it's just as important to change this one as it is to remember that they have already shifted their mission statement in other documents.

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So the word best when it comes to any sort of academic or museum purpose is at the same time as it is heavily loaded,

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it doesn't really say that much about what the museum actually wants to do.

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We all know that there is amongst museums. Of course, there's an edge of heavy competition,

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but the word best for this doesn't seem to actually reflect what the Pitt Rivers is trying to do with their new direction,

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which is decolonised and share multiple stories from different cultures and make sure

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that the museum is a safe place for everybody in light of a very deep colonial past.

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So when we say the word best, I think it's important to define what we mean by that, is it the most forward thinking?

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Is it the most academic? Is it the most inclusive? It's important to define these things.

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Another thing that we wanted to explore today was the definition of the word public.

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So this word shows up nine times in this document and a lot in the mission statement

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without any clear definition or indication as to what the word public actually means.

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All it says is the sharing of knowledge amongst the widest possible public.

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And of course, I think that's quite common amongst museum policies,

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particularly in institutions like the Pitt Rivers, where the range of collections is so vast.

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However, I do think it is important to expand on this definition of public.

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But the rest of the interns and I are really getting at with this is who is this museum for?

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What is its purpose and how is that purpose reflected or not reflected in this policy?

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I'm sure that everybody agrees. I'm sure that the staff of the Pitt Rivers would agree that museums should be for everyone.

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I'm sure that's what the sign in the mission statement means. However,

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if it's not explicitly stated that the museum is also intended to be a space of healing and partnership for those whose

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artefacts the museum has in its possession and the tone of the collection development policy will imply otherwise,

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especially since it is a museum that is deeply rooted in colonialism. As we know, this really isn't congruent with the river's actions and intentions,

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as their new mission statement is all about exploring ways to decolonise and create new partnerships with communities all around the world.

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However, if we don't define what public we actually mean,

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then this river's collections development policy statement will imply that it means a British public, an OX40 in public,

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a public that is interested in seeing and preserving these works,

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but is not necessarily interested in creating partnerships with those who actually made them.

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Great, thank you, Meghan, for that discussion about the first part of the mission statement.

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The idea of the public is something that we all reflect on and not just in the museum world,

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but in wider society and what the public really means in terms of accessibility and moving things into an institution where one

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public is represented and another might not be is something that needs to be at the heart of an institution like the paper,

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it need to recognise that. Next, we're over Typekit. He's going to give a little bit more about the second half.

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Thanks, Betty. So moving on to the final paragraph of the old mission statement,

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which to recap states that policy ensures that the museum accepts and disposes

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of material according to recognised strategy in line with national standards.

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Well, even if this is no longer mentioned as part of the new vision,

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this still seems reality to which the museum has to avoid, and thus it's important to bring this up nonetheless,

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because the problem is that there is now lots of disagreement on a regional,

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but also a national and even an international level on what's important and proper when we talk about acquisition and disposal.

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So it will be interesting to find out what room there is for museums like the bid refers

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to get involved in setting the national standards that essentially has to follow.

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Great. Thanks. Yep. Now we're going to move on to some more specific aspects of the collections development policy.

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First of all, we're going to look in section three, which is an overview of the current collections.

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First, we'll look at three point one point one, which is the size, coverage and significance of the kind of collections.

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The museum's collections comprise artefacts from all parts of the world,

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from prehistoric times to the present day, along with major manuscript photographs, sound and film collections.

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In 2015, the collections numbered over five hundred and fifty thousand artefacts,

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including objects, photographs and sound recordings, and 81 collections of manuscripts.

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All collections are designated as of national or international significance,

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reflecting the fact that the museum has one of the most significant archaeological and ethnographic collections in the world.

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Collections are used for research and teaching in the University of Oxford and by scholars and students nationally and internationally,

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as well as in the museum's award winning programme of public outreach and educational activities.

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The museum is committed to making its collections accessible to the widest possible audience, as detailed in the museum's access policy.

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Displays are open to the general public daily.

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The collections are managed, documented and displayed according to the museum's documentation policy and procedural manual collections.

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Care and conservation policy and access policy. Backlogs and documentation are being addressed, according to the museum's documentation backlog plan.

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Great. So I'm just going to pass over to yet he has been looking a little bit more in depth.

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About 3.1. Thanks, Betty.

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Section three point one enumerates the number of objects, photographs and manuscripts that make up the collection of the museum.

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And what caught our attention is that it is this information regarding quantity,

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which is then linked to the idea that the museum holds one of the most significant collections in the world.

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And one thing to be discussed here is this relationship between quantity and quality.

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For teams, that quantity of collections is only ever meaningful if its quality can be ensured.

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So what has come up in some of the recent conversations around care for objects?

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And I'm thinking there are already many of the bids rivers museum webinars organised during lockdown, for instance.

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So one thing that came up is that a quality of collection needs to take many boxes, basically.

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It should, for instance, ensure a balance between preservation care and cultural care for objects.

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It should also fairly represent the different modes of being, knowing and understanding linked to these objects.

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And on top of that, it should be easily accessible to Fister as well as stakeholder communities.

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So I guess in this series of interviews will be very interested in hearing from our guests what they see as markers of the quality of collection,

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and we want to try and discover what the challenges are in safeguarding a quality of collection.

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And I hope that will give us a clearer idea of debt, which is still missing and what can be improved within the current clip.

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Great. Thanks. Yep. And just moving on to a different part of Section three,

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which looks a little bit more at the ethnographic collections and also part of Section four, which looks at complimentary contemporary artefacts.

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So McIndoe discussed these a little bit further. But first,

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let's just read out three point two point one ethnographic collections on Page five and four point two point one complimentary contemporary

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artefacts on Page seven three point two point one Ethnographic Collections Selective highlights of the ethnographic collections include the forced,

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a collection of Pacific artefacts from Captain Cook Second Voyage 1772 to 1775,

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one of the great collections of 18th century Pacific art and material culture.

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Rich collections from Central Australia, donated by Pioneer Ethnographic,

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WB Spencer and MJ given great depth of 19th and 20th century collections from South Sudan, including those of eminent anthropologists.

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Edward Evans-Pritchard The Hopkins collection made by the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1841 to 1842,

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containing rare examples of painted and quilt northern plains war shirts, which have become benchmark references for scholars.

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European music collections, including of a general by Marco Godhra,

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dated 15 fifty to the oldest keyboard instrument in Oxford, as well as musical boxes and mechanical musical instruments.

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The collection made in 1825 to 1828 by F.W. Beachie and E. Belcher,

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officers on the Sloop HMS Blossom amongst the earliest Inuit collections in the world.

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The contents of the private museum at the second drawers of Sarawak donated to the museum in 1923 Exceptional Naga Holdings.

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More than 6000 objects, many collected by JH Houghton and JP Mills between 1915 and 1945,

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and constituting one of the best documented collections in the world. The collection of European firearms general rivers original interest,

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which includes many early and type examples of great significance to firearms specialists 4.2.1 complementary and contemporary artefacts.

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The museum continues to acquire contemporary artefacts through anthropological fieldwork

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and collaborative research with source communities when relevant opportunities arise.

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The aim is to build on existing historic collections by adding contemporary artefacts that provide insights into current practise,

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as well as different perspectives on early collections. Recent examples of this are the purchase of Nyaga Textiles through an anthropologist

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working in Nagaland and a collection of quill work made by a Blackfoot artist over time.

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And wonderful thanks, Betty. The section three point to point one on ethnographic collections names 14 different

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colonial administrators who collected the museum's holdings at the same time,

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only for cultural groups are mentioned, and no specific artist or creator is actually mentioned by name,

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which is a little bit silly considering that the Rivers has longstanding relationships with a lot of these groups,

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like the Naga and the Blackfoot, and have created multiple culture workshops to deepen their relationships with these communities.

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So even though the ubiquitous public is not specifically designated,

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the language and focus of the collections development policy make it clear that this museum is intended to benefit a public that is white,

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British and proud of their colonial history, which is obviously never specifically said.

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That can be pretty well inferred from the language of the document,

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which is very much focussed towards the colonial collections and not so much the people who actually made them.

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And then the relationships that the Pitt Rivers has since struck up with these people.

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And as we all know that it isn't actually the river's true mission,

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the other interns and I think it would be great to formally define the public as not only visitors,

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but those whose belongings the museum holds, and in fact,

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everyone who's been affected by the Pitt rivers possession of these artefacts, which is in fact a lot of people,

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as the previous collections are so vast, there's absolutely no way that they can get away in this policy.

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With mentioning only colonial administrators and not those whose artefacts the museum hold,

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each of the different colonial administrators are named and called distinguished.

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But it's a little bit silly that original creators not a little bit silly.

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It's disgraceful that the original creators aren't actually named when the Pitt Rivers has expended such effort in recent years in cultivating

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relationships with these groups to better their relationships with the people who made the artefacts that they hold in their museum.

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Great. Thanks, Nick. And I mean, of course, a lot of the time when it comes to historical objects, you know, we might not have the records,

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but there needs to be, as Meghan said, some acknowledgement of equal footing between those who created and those who collected.

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Next, we've got a little bit more from point four and a little bit more from point three.

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So first we look at three point three, which is material not accepted for permanent collection, the handling collection.

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And then we'll look at four point one, which is general collecting principles.

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And Alexis will look at both of these and discuss how they interact.

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Three point three Material not accepted for permanent collection handling collection The museum

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may occasionally and with the written agreement of the donor or person transferring the material,

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acquire items that are not intended to be retained for the permanent collection.

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These items may be used as part of the educational or school handling activities to supplement student teaching or for destructive research.

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These acquisitions will be recorded separately outside the main accession record

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of the museum and shall not be treated as part of the permanent collection.

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Since their intended use implies that preservation cannot be guaranteed, a record will be kept of how and when any material is disposed of.

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4.1 General collecting principles The museum will in principle and subject to the qualifications set out below,

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acquire any material which falls within its areas of interest and merits.

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Preservation material will be acquired primarily for its ethnographic, archaeological or historical importance.

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Rail duplication and acquisition is avoided, but material that shows the extension over time or space of a technique or style is acquired.

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A favoured method of acquisition is to finance,

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collecting or photographing in the field by graduate students or others doing ethnographic and archaeological fieldwork.

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This is economical, and the resulting collections are thoroughly and expertly documented.

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Material is also accepted by donation bequest or purchased at auction or from dealers and private sources as funds allow.

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With the exception of short term loans for temporary. Submissions.

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The museum does not normally now acquire specimens online in exceptional circumstances,

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such as where it is legally impossible for title to be transferred from the present owner of a

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specimen to the museum and taking into account the safeguards under Section one and Section nine.

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A loan may be accepted for a specified period. If that specimen is of particular relevance to the museum's collection,

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the main constraints relating to collections development or the lack of space for storage,

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which also suffers from being dispersed at a number of off site locations and the

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availability of staff to carry out both cataloguing and deaccessioning procedures.

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A joint University of Oxford Museums Offsite facility for collections is in the early stages of planning.

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This, we hope, will provide high quality storage for the museum's reserve collections, as well as facilities for research staff and visitors.

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The museum is continually seeking external funding to expand the scope of its stewardship work,

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also providing opportunities for volunteers to assist with such work as specified in its volunteering policy.

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Volunteers are engaged to manage through the Oxford University Museum's volunteer service.

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Great. We'll just pass over to Alexis, who will talk a little bit more about these two sections.

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So these two passages for me, I think, really express this prioritisation of preservation that is so prevalent throughout the rest of the CDP.

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In three point three, for example, if preservation cannot be guaranteed, then the object cannot be considered part of the permanent collection.

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Preservation in this instance, is a necessary condition for an object that the paint rivers faces light in for one material,

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which preservation not only reveal this underlying Western notion that preservation

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is the gold also reads as though the museum is the sole arbitrator of what marriage,

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what is worthy of this treatment. I want to clarify it's not, of course,

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that the preservation of objects is inherently wrong if and this is the key if that is in line with the objects,

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respective cultures, conceptualisation of objects and agency and preservation.

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Instead, it's about the wording of the policy does not seem to allow for other avenues of treating

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and caring for collections and thus for other views of the world and of material objects.

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Ultimately, preservation is not always a necessary condition for cultural care, and the CDP should reflect this.

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Thank you, Alexis. I think this idea of preservation really comes up a lot in both the workshop that we did with

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the museum staff and also in some of the later discussions that we have with our interviewees.

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It's very interesting. And yeah, we hope to kind of stimulate some really good discussion on that.

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Finally, we have another maybe very contentious issue, which is the repatriation and restitution of objects and human remains in the policy document.

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So yep, we'll discuss a little bit more on this. We're looking at point fifteen,

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so that includes fifteen point one and fifteen point two under the heading repatriation

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and restitution of restructuring and the restitution made objects and human remains.

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Fifteen point one The Council of the University of Oxford, acting on the advice of the museum's professional staff and its governing body,

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may take a decision to return human remains unless covered by the guidance for the care of human remains in museums issued by DCMS in 2005.

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Objects or specimens to a country or people of origin council will take such decisions on a case by case

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basis within its legal position and taking into account all ethical implications and available guidance.

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This means that the procedures described in sixteen point one to sixteen point five will be followed,

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but the remaining procedures are not appropriate. Fifteen point two The disposal of human remains for museums in England,

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Northern Ireland and Wales will follow the procedures in the guidance for the care of human remains in

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museums and adhere to the policy on human remains held by the University of Oxford to Museums 2006.

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Over to you yet? Thanks, Bessie. So the current repatriation section, the first thing one notices is that it's extremely sparse.

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And this is partly because the museum pleads for a case to case approach,

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which we think is necessary since each request is different and brings together different histories, contextual circumstances and also desires.

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But nevertheless, it could be more specific as to provide more information on barriers and solutions to challenges that come about during the process.

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One such challenge is, for instance,

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debt repatriation is quite often the cost for repatriation are often covered by the indigenous nation to whom the artefacts is being returned.

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This is something we, as interns have been discussing, and in addition, we thought the repatriation section could specify.

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FIE on what responsibilities the museum sets to commit to.

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So we want to ask our guests, especially from other museums,

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what they added in their repatriation section and what they would like to see in the Pitt Rivers repatriation section.

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Great. Thanks so much yet. And that concludes our deep dive into the collections development policy.

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Hopefully, this will provide you with a really good foundation and insight into some of the work that we've been doing,

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so that we can kind of take this forward looking at these passages with the interviews that we're doing in future episodes with our interviewees,

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as we kind of mentioned at the beginning of the episode, this.

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Discussion of the policy in the passages that we've just done has come from a workshop that we did with Rivers staff early on in the summer.

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One of the things that really came across in that discussion in the kind of open table discussion that we did

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following a presentation of the research we've looked into in the passages was this idea around accreditation.

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The reason that we are looking at the collections bill and policy is because the policy and the museum are up for RE accreditation,

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that this is something that happens every five years.

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And basically, you have a collection of different policies that you send off to the Arts Council and the museum will receive accreditation.

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This basically make sure that museums are aligned in ensuring that the collections that they look after are looked after in similar ways,

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adhering to local international guidelines, and it does affect the funding that the museum receives as well.

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The collection development policy is a really cool part of that.

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And because of this, it does need to tick a number of boxes which are provided by the Arts Council in order for it to be re accredited.

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This is something that we really would like to look at a little bit further in

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our interviews a little bit further in our own research from this podcast.

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And hopefully this will stimulate a little bit of discussion around the accreditation process and

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thinking about whether accreditation needs to change and the guidelines for coordination need to change,

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as well as the policies because. If the policy has to adhere to accreditation, but the process of accreditation is maybe less flexible and less.

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Up to date, then it could be and that, you know, museum theory has kind of moved on that maybe that needs to be something that's looked at and that's,

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you know, we'll discuss a little bit more and future episodes. Great.

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Thank you guys so much. In this episode, we've given your listeners a good background on the finances of the current CDP.

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In the following episodes, we go in depth screen perspectives from indigenous knowledge holders, artists,

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museum professionals, curators and directors from other museums and accreditation professionals.

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Finally, a special thanks to the Knowledge Exchange Fund for their support in making this podcast possible.

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That was the Rivers Museum's Matters of Policy podcast produced by Betty Woodhouse,

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yet Boom Snake and Man Alexis Boyer and Bobble Hat Sound Music by Jack Forcett,

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voiceover by who let a special thank you to Muranga Thompson Offline and the Knowledge Exchange.