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Letter from President Sean Decatur to Museum Staff
08.07.25
Dear Colleagues,
I’m writing to share with you the latest activities from the Museum’s ongoing work to engage with Native communities and to advance consultation and repatriation activities.
Just a few weeks after my last update in early March, the Museum hosted a delegation from the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation (MMFN), based on Vancouver Island, for the repatriation of the Whalers’ Shrine, a Mowachaht First Nation cultural treasure, and associated ancestral remains. The Cultural Resources Office (CRO), together with the Division of Anthropology, the Registrar, and other colleagues worked with the MMFN community for nearly a year to accomplish this significant repatriation. On March 25–27, we were honored to welcome a large MMFN delegation, including elders and youth, for a formal ceremony and transfer.
So far in 2025, the Cultural Resources Office, led by Director Nell Murphy, has conducted more than 500 consultations, including with federally recognized Tribes, Native Hawaiian Organizations, lineal descendants, federal agencies, state agencies, and Canadian First Nations. The Cultural Resources Office has also hosted five Indigenous delegations. In addition to the repatriation of the Whalers’ Shrine, two repatriations have been completed so far this year, to federally recognized Tribes.
As part of our duty of care for cultural objects, Director of Collections Programs Katie Sabella has continued outreach to federally recognized Tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations to invite consultations, and I will have a fuller update in my next report.
In exhibition updates, Grounded by Our Roots in the Northwest Coast Hall’s contemporary art gallery closed in April. In June, we opened Shaping the Future Through Tradition, a new exhibition featuring video art, animations, short films, and emerging new media pieces from seven Indigenous artists from the Pacific Northwest. Shaping the Future Through Tradition was produced by our Exhibition department with guest curator Michael Bourquin (Tāłtān/Gitxsan), a filmmaker from Iskut First Nation, who previously worked with the Museum to create the introductory video that screens in the Northwest Coast Hall. We were pleased to host Mike and many of the featured artists for the opening on June 18.
Finally, in June, the Education Division welcomed interns from the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde for the annual Grand Ronde Learning Exchange. This month, two Education colleagues, Senior Manager of Youth and Workforce Development Albeliza “Abby” Perez and Cultural Anthropology Educator Maria Sawiris, are visiting the Chachalu Museum and Cultural Center in Grand Ronde to continue to work with this year’s interns on a presentation about their time in New York City, including visits to various museums and with t’əmanəwas (the Willamette meteorite). Together, they will co-present at the Grand Ronde Education Summit about the Learning Exchange, the updated interpretive label for t’əmanəwas, and ongoing collaborations between the youth in the community and the Museum.
Thank you to all for continuing this important work.
Sean