Visiting with the Ancestors: Blackfoot Shirts in Museum Spaces

In the pages of this beautifully illustrated volume is the story of an effort to build a bridge between museums and source communities in hopes of establishing stronger, more sustaining relationships between the two and spurring change in prevailing museum policies. The experience of negotiating the tension between a museum’s institutional protocol described by both the authors and by Blackfoot contributors to the volume was transformative. Museums seek to preserve objects for posterity. However, the emotional and spiritual power of objects does not vanish with the death of those who created them. For Blackfoot people today, these shirts are a living presence, one that evokes a sense of continuity and inspires pride in Blackfoot cultural heritage.