MEG event: Trip to Intrepid Women

Zena McGreevey discusses Beatrice Blackwood

The most recent MEG event was a visit to Intrepid Women: Fieldwork in Action,1910-1957 an
exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford.   The exhibition was curated by Joanna Cole, Zena McGreevy and Julia Nicholson and we were very lucky to be given a tour of the exhibition by Zena and Julia and to have the chance to talk with all three of them over lunch.    

 

 

The exhibition focussed on six women who all contributed significant collections to the Pitt Rivers museum.   Each women had her own section which featured a mixture of photography, film footage and archival material alongside objects from the collection.  The exhibition was arranged chronologically but it was possible to approach the exhibition from either end or to pick and choose which individuals to focus on as each profile works as a standalone exhibit.

 

The first woman featured was Barbara Freire-Marreco one of three people to enrol on the Oxford Anthropology Diploma when it was founded in 1906 and the only one to be awarded a Distinction.  It was particularly good to hear about Makereti a woman from New Zealand with a Maori mother and an English father.  She worked as a tour guide and ambassador for Maori culture around Rotorua before marrying an English man and moving to Oxford.  Her collection is mainly made up of her own possessions which she bought with her to the UK. The third women is perhaps the best known of all of them, Beatrice Blackwood.  During the 1920s she undertook fieldwork in Canada, USA (including spending time in the same Pueblo communities as Freire-Marreco) and New Guinea before beginning work at the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1935.  

 

Julia Nicholson and MEG members

Highlights from Elsie McDougall’s collection of textiles from Mexico and Guatemala were beautifully displayed alongside drawings and diagrams of the techniques used and photographs of the weavers.  These textiles contrasted nicely with those collected by Ursula Graham in the Naga Hills.  Graham’s collection included a wide variety of object types with photography and some early colour films.  Neither of these women considered themselves anthropologists but nonetheless there collections and diligent records have made important contributions to the field.  The exhibition ends with film footage made by Audrey Butt Colson while she was doing fieldwork in the Upper Mazaruni District of Guyana in the 1950s.  The film was intended as a teaching tool but her work continues to be used by Akawaio people to support their claim for legal ownership of their ancestral lands.

 

It was particularly good to attend the exhibition as part of a MEG event as it gave us a chance to talk in detail with the curators and understand some of the issues they faced putting on the exhibition.  These included practical considerations like the accessibility of some of the collections and how they worked as a team as well as intellectual and ethical issues.  For example, Zena emphasised the importance of the manuscripts and archives in the collection that relate to the women and the meticulousness of their record keeping.  We debated over lunch whether these women had been overlooked because they did not come up with any grand overarching theories and whether this should now be regarded as a strength of their work as their extensive notes on a wide range of subjects, and not in support of a particular view, make them more useful to contemporary researchers.  Julia discussed the ethics of choosing objects for use in marketing and the decision not to use spiritual objects in this way.   I was particularly keen to hear about all the women who didn’t quite make the cut as it seemed like the curators were spoilt for choice!

Collections in Circulation: Conference, 9-10 May 2019

The Mobile Museum Project Conference will take place at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th May 2019.

The conference brings together scholars from the UK and overseas with a shared interest in the mobility of museum collections, past and present. Their papers will address various aspects of the history of the circulation of objects and their re-mobilisation in the context of object exchange, educational projects and community engagement.

Confirmed speakers include Claudia Augustat, Paul Basu, Joshua Bell, Martha Fleming, Tony Kanellos, Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, Luciana Martins, Wayne Modest, Catherine Nichols, Jude Philp, Daniel Simpson, Alice Stevenson and members of the Mobile Museum project team.

The full conference programme is now availlable and is designed to allow opportunity for extended discussion of the papers and their implications. A reception will be held in Kew’s Shirley Sherwood Gallery, and there will be optional tours of the Economic Botany Collection, the Herbarium and Kew’s library & archives.

JOB: Assistant Curator, East Asia Collections Review Project, National Museum of Scotland

Based at the National Museum of Scotland, this temporary, full-time post will support the work of an East Asia Collections Review across various cultural institutions in Scotland. The aim of the project is to increase understanding of and public access to Chinese, Japanese and Korean collections in Scotland. Working within the East & Central Asia section of the World Cultures department (the Senior Curator for Japan collections, the Curator for Chinese collections and the Japan Foundation Assistant Curator), liaising with the National Programme Co-ordinator in the National and International Partnerships department, and working closely with staff from the partner museums, your duties will include visiting collections throughout Scotland to identify and document collections, gathering and collating information (both image and text), consulting museum documentation, writing reports, and presenting results.

You must have a degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject area (e.g. art history; history, with a demonstrable interest in the arts and culture) while a postgraduate qualification in a museum-related subject or art history (or equivalent) is desirable. The duties of this post require the post holder to have relevant experience of working in a museum or similar environment and be knowledgeable and enthusiastic about cultural collections and/or subject areas.

It is expected that you will have experience of undertaking research and of preparing and delivering presentations. Equally essential are ICT skills in Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and Outlook together with knowledge of collections management databases. You must also be able to demonstrate your ability to plan and organise your workload, manage projects and build relationships within and outside of National Museums Scotland.

For more information visit the National Museum of Scotland Website.

Textile Tour of Kyrgyzstan

The Oriental Rug and Textile Society (ORTS) are organising an exciting Textile Tour of Kyrgyzstan, visiting many of the artisans who have featured in the research of Dr Stephanie Bunn the author of Nomadic Felts. The tour will run from 6-18 June 2019, starting and ending in Bishkek. ORTS have decided to open up the last few remaining places on this tour to non-members, offering them a fabulous opportunity to learn more about the textiles of this amazing country.

Participants will gain an insight into contemporary Kyrgyz design, with visits to Vorotnika Studio and Dilbar Fashion House in Bishkek, as well as the more traditional use of patterns with many visits to expert craftsmen across the country. These will include the opportunity for a masterclass on weaving in Sary Mogol and feltmaking at the Golden Thimble workshop in Bokonbaevo. In 2014 this NGO, founded by Janyl Bayisheva, received a UNESCO Award recognising the excellence of their handicrafts.

Through their contacts ORTS have been able to arrange for the group to have dinner with Zhyldyz Asanakunova, the head of the Felt Art Group in Bokonbaevo. Zhyldyz is recognised internationally for her shyrdaks – the felt rugs with powerful motifs seen throughout Kyrgyzstan.

Other special dinners will take place in traditional nomadic dwellings known as yurts. Accommodation will be in hotels, homestays and guesthouses.

This is a fantastic opportunity to take part in a very adventurous trip, experiencing the best crafts that Kyrgyzstan has to offer under expert guidance. To find out more please email Louise Teague (ORTS Chairperson).

Kindly researched  by Sue Richardson,  Blog Mistress of the Oxford Asian Textile Group.

MEG Committee Vacancy

The MEG committee runs MEG on behalf of the members.  We are looking for someone who would be interested in taking on the role of Membership Secretary, as the person currently doing that job is going to be working abroad for most of this year and will not be able to continue as a member of the committee.

The current Membership Secretary is available for handover on limited days this month, so this is quite urgent.  The post is voluntary, and entails managing the individual members accounts.  Most of the work comes at the beginning of the year and at conference time, as people renew and join.
 

Please contact us to discuss the work involved if you are interested, via members@museumethnographersgroup.org.uk