From Authority to Collaboration

Recommendation 2: From Authority to Collaboration

Theme: Authority

How do we currently talk about it?

Museums have authority as spaces that preserve, collect, and exhibit our historical, cultural, and scientific expertise. Museums provide an opportunity for their visitors to learn from them. Canadians agree that museums have valuable roles in preservation and education. These roles are, in part, the basis for museums’ credibility and trustworthiness with the public.

What are the consequences?

• Takes the authority away from other institutions, community groups, source communities, or individuals to also be seen as conservators, teachers, knowledge keepers, and experts who can offer opportunities to learn.
• Limits opportunities for interdisciplinary work and cross-sector collaboration.
• Reinforces the perception that museums do not have anything to learn from their communities and visitors, limiting participation. 
• Creates a hierarchy of knowledge where museums are seen the ultimate authority on history, culture, etc.
• Values certain types of knowledge, i.e., academic, colonial knowledge, etc., over others, i.e., Indigenous knowledge, lived experience, etc.

What is the reframe?

Authority is held by everyone. Museums share authority with communities by collaborating to produce and disseminate knowledge. Multiple types of knowledge, including oral traditions and experiential knowledge, are valued and included. The relationship between museums and their communities is relational, not transactional. Through those relationships, the museum can move from seeing themselves as the expert to embracing the role of learner. By doing this, museums earn the trust of their communities through reciprocity and knowledge sharing, not solely expertise. Visitors are seen as community members that actively participate with the museum to co-create their own learning experience.

What is the data to support the reframe?

• 96% of respondents agree that the museum is a place to learn and be inspired.
• 68% of respondents agree that local museums can be a place to engage with the community.
• 76% of respondents agree that museums give people a sense of belonging and membership in a community.
• 58% of respondents agree that museums should have dialogue with local communities to develop programs that resonate with community interests.

Useful Phrases:

Here are some suggested useful phrases that can be adopted into your individual writing and communication styles to help reframe the conversation around museums and authority.

• “Museums are not the sole authority on the past or the truth.”
• “Truth is not singular but contains multitudes. There is room for multiple interpretations here.”
• “There is more than one way to get at the truth.”
• "To tell a fuller truth, we need to include multiple perspectives.”
• “There are multiple, parallel, and often divergent perspectives on historic events.”
• “Collaborating with communities can help us better understand the past by acknowledging the divergent records of a single event. Telling history requires interpretation.”
• “Collaborating with knowledge keepers, elders, and communities means we can present a story that reflects those groups and is relevant to them today.”
• “Our visitors trust us to share the whole story with them. Let’s trust them with the complexities of the past.”