Is it a sin to collect?

[Dennis and Jane Piechota]



No matter my good intentions when I occasionally speak to an indigenous group I become aware, often in an unexpected and awkward moment of silence, that I come to them from the OTHER, from the empowered, and I speak to them, the dispossessed, as though I believe we are all ONE. I feel honored, relieved and forgiven whenever one of the indigenous listeners in the group breaks the tension with a small smile and resumes the discussion. 

Walking away I vow once again to just listen but I know I will find it hard to stay quiet. I wonder why, how does this happen? Why do I see myself as ONE with the indigenous descendants of the dispossessed?

Recently I've realize it's because I believe on some level that because I’ve had a lifetime of close contact with their often purloined belongings, that I understand them. By collecting masses of objects housed in separation from the original storytellers we, the white guardians of those collections, believe to a degree that we possess their story along with them.

What if instead of preserving their belongings we were driven more directly to help them collect and preserve their memories. What might a Conservator of Indigenous Memory do? If that new role existed it might help to begin the return of what we inappropriately term material culture to the status of memory aids for the original storytellers and to then listen more attentively to that story.

Dennis

Dennis Piechota
he/him/his
Archaeological Conservator (retired)
Archaeological Micromorphologist
Fiske Center for Archaeological Research
UMass Boston

ALTCONS Group Admin

an Alternative Conservation Discussion