Page 11 - uc20180926nagpra

permitted studies in previous years have included Carbon-14 and mass spectrometry. Regular
research occurs on the Museum’s other Native American holdings, following a similar process.

OTHER INITIATIVES
The Hearst Museum recognizes Native American communities and individuals as among its core
stakeholders, and close collaboration is instrumental to many of its program areas. Tribal
members were involved as co-curators in the Museum’s inaugural exhibition after its 2016
reopening, for instance, and the Hearst Museum’s eleven-member Native American Advisory
Council (NAAC) advises the Museum’s work on matters ranging from loans, to exhibitions,
educational programs and traditional care. Made up of individuals from federally recognized and
unrecognized Tribes in California and Nevada with a wide and deep range of background the
impact of this group on museum procedures and strategy has already been profound. For
example, the NAAC recently developed guidelines concerning the display of images of sensitive
material on the Museum’s public collections Portal, which the Museum adopted in their
entirety. The Hearst Museum also has in place procedures for the traditional care of the physical
objects and human remains that it houses. Tribes can request that objects in the Museum’s
care—whether NAGPRA-implicated or not—are cared for in culturally appropriate ways. The
Museum has been able to comply with those requests in a consistent basis.

The 2017 launch of the aforementioned Hearst Museum Portal was specifically designed to
serve people with cultural connections to those societies represented in the Hearst Museum’s
collections, including Native Californian educators, spiritual leaders, repatriation coordinators,
tribal government officials and artists. It is an especially important tool in NAGPRA, as it provides
direct access to all Museum information associated with the cultural objects in its care.

The Museum is proud to lead and participate in a variety of educational and cultural initiatives
involving Native American Tribes and communities. It is a sponsor and key participant in the
biennial Breath of Life program, which is held at UC Berkeley in even-numbered years to assist
California Indians in their language revitalization efforts. The Museum provides access to its
numerous sound recordings, gives tours of the California basketry collections, and guides
participants in researching and exploring the collections online. The Museum has also been
closely involved in the West Berkeley Shellmound Community Project, and related efforts to
protect the site from destruction. Further, the Hearst Museum is currently working with
partners to digitize, preserve, and distribute hundreds of hours of audio and video materials
from the twentieth century pertaining to Native American societies, and is working on a
consultation plan to determine how best to proceed in a culturally appropriate manner.