November 2022 Update

TRACK Updates

Pilot sites are working through the draft assessment document and meeting with us to talk about the assessment process. 

Thank you to the 70+ people who joined us for Mi'kmaq Community Engagement Day. We've heard very positive feedback from the facilitators and participants, so are talking with community partners about doing similar training in other parts of the province. This is such an important learning journey. Stay tuned for more! 

Also keep in mind that in January we are partnering with SMU to delivery an online workshop called Unearthing the Impacts of Unconscious Bias and Microaggressions. Dr. Rohini Bannerjee and Deborah Brothers-Scott will lead participants through learning and self-reflection with the goal of mitigating the impacts of these issues in your museum. Click here to register for the January 17th workshop.

If you want to catch up on TRACK news or access previous training recordings, visit our website.

Regional Meetings

We had a great time travelling around the province for regional meetings this month, and really enjoyed the conversations we had with everyone. We know that there are questions about some of the advocacy and TRACK decision-making discussions; people waiting to hear about decisions and follow-up actions. We are working through input from the meetings with the TRACK working group and board. We know you're eager for news and will share more as soon as we can. 

Unlocking Museum Collections

We ended up postponing our Amherst session. The ANSM office got hit by the cold/flu plague going around, and our community partners wanted more time to build interest in the session, so we will be rescheduling in the new year. 

The next step for this work is to write the 'digitization strategy'. As we've said before, the conversations extended far beyond collections and digitization, so we are know this document won't be what was originally planned. It will be more of a roadmap for decolonizing museums. Yes there will be a heavy focus on collections and digitization because we need to make sure information gets back into communities, but there will be other elements too. 

We will also be sharing an update before the holidays so that everyone can see how we've been making progress on this work. There are a lot of calls to action and things to do that won't happen overnight, but we're all in this together and have some great collaborations in place and in the planning stages. We heard loud and clear that some communities have consultation fatigue, and feel like people come in and make promises and are never heard from again, so we want to make sure that we don't do this to anyone. So again, stay tuned for more info. This is exciting work. 

CollectiveAccess Updates

The exciting news about CollectiveAccess is that we're in the process of migrating two museums so will soon have a lot more Acadian and African Nova Scotian content on NovaMuse; thousands of new objects and stories to share. In addition to this, we've seen a decent amount of activity in the databases this month, with 585 new records and 1,588 new images being entered. That means that collectively, there are 361,314 records and 334,805 images entered in the databases.

Here are the regional stats:
Southwest: 154,763 records and 109,673 images
Central: 110,016 records and 115,003 images
Northeast: 63,074 records and 83,358 images
Cape Breton: 33,461 records and 26,771 images

Your image lesson of the month is a bit of a laundry list...reminders about how to get a good photo. The object is a small black address book with gold accents. The cover is fairly glossy and reflective. If I were digitizing this object, here's what I would do:
- Use a flatbed scanner rather than camera
- Using the preview mode, I would crop and adjust the image before making the actual scan
- If there are any markings or decorations on the back cover, I would scan the back. 
- I would repeat this process for key pages, but depending on the age of the address book would not make these images accessible to the public. 

If this were a 3-dimensional object rather than a book, here's what I would do:
- Swap out backdrop fabric so that a white or light cloth would contrast with the dark object. This will make it really pop to the eye. 
- Move the scale to the lower left corner, hugging the object without actually touching it. 
- Use umbrella lights and turn off the camera flash so there is no flash burn - the bright spots in the middle and bottom of the book cover.
- Change the orientation of the camera so that it aligns with the shape of the object, and fill the frame neatly and tightly.
- Crop any uneven edges.

Educational Partnerships
We said goodbye to Olivia last week as she wrapped up her MSVU Child & Youth Studies placement. We are so proud of all that she accomplished and are slowly releasing her new and updated resources to NovaMuseEd. 

It's that time of year to prepare for our annual Fleming College data cleaning project. Emails have been sent out to the next museums in the list, so if you received one, please respond asap and let us know if you want to participate. If not we'll move on to the next museum in the list. This is a great project that gets an extra set of eyes and research hands in your database, and this year we'll be linking it up with our Unlocking work. We are already looking forward to what the students have to say about this next group of 220 objects. 

We are about to make our pitch for a summer 2023 intern to several museum studies programs. If you have ideas for internships but aren't sure who to talk to, feel free to reach out. The students will begin searching for their placement in January so now is the time to plan.

In case you missed it...

Karin writes a reflective blog post for Remembrance Day. This year it reflects on the message we heard over and over again at Unlocking sessions - museums need to tell the whole story, to tell the truth even if its uncomfortable. To read the post, click here. 

Museums and Remembrance Day - 2022 Edition

This has been an interesting year at ANSM; a year of change and a year of growth. We have been building bridges with people and communities, and stretching our perspectives as a result. The readings and resources that have crossed our desks have kept us awake and helped us sleep at night. And last week one article perfectly stated:

"Speak the truth even if your voice shakes."

This was in the context of decolonization and reconciliation, but I ended up pondering the statement more broadly, as it applies to every aspect of museum work. From working conditions to choosing which stories and voices to highlight in exhibits, we need to always remember that museums are not (and have never been) neutral. Everyone outside of the museum sector recognizes this; our community conversations have consistently included calls to not shy away from uncomfortable history but instead tell the whole story. We need to use our voices to speak the truth, whatever the truth may be. 

Remembrance Day feels like the perfect time to reflect on this call to action. So often in our commemorative exhibits we focus on stories of heroism and bravery and the men and women in our communities who served overseas or made significant contributions on the home front. We need to ask ourselves: Do our voices shake when we tell these stories? Are they the whole truth? 

As I thought about this, stories from my father kept swirling in my head. Family stories. Private stories. Telling the whole truth would most certainly make my voice shake. It is not comfortable. But it is important, so let's go there. Let's talk about Grandma's brother Fred.

Fred drove a tank during the Second World War. While serving in Italy, he and some friends were walking through a town. They encountered some local women who invited them into a house for some 'socializing.' As soon as the men were inside, the door closed and the women attacked them, stabbing them each multiple times. I don't know what happened to the other men or women, but Fred survived, and spent a long time recuperating in hospital. While in the hospital, Fred's tank was destroyed and the entire crew lost. He never forgave himself for not being there for his buddies. Having not one, but two traumatic experiences that were so intensely personal in such quick succession would damage anyone. Fred was no exception. If this happened today he would undoubtedly be diagnosed with PTSD. In the 1940s, 'the war changed him.' 

Fred made it through the war, came back home, married and had a son. They have richer and fuller and more positive stories to share with you. He was also especially close with one of his sisters who ended up living in the United Stated. In her eyes he could do no wrong. But from my father's childhood perspective, Fred was scary. He was unpredictable and volatile. He drank a lot, threatened people with knives, threw things, and was incredibly hurtful in his words and actions. He was a person in a lot of pain and in need of help. 

Relationships and family dynamics are complex. When I unwittingly mentioned the sad state of the family Bible to my great aunt (Fred's favourite sister) and that I was going to get it repaired, she was horrified to hear that it wasn't in the pristine condition she remembered. She asked what happened, so I relayed that Dad told me Fred had thrown it down the stairs. She gasped, denied, and then swung into sisterly protective mode. She would pay for it, she would handle it, no need to focus on or worry about how it got damaged. I imagine this kind of family response happened more than once after Fred returned from the war. 

This is not the kind of story you see in museums' Remembrance Day exhibits. Of course Fred's story includes heroism and bravery. But it is far more complex than that. It also demonstrates the impact of trauma on an individual and their family. It is private, uncomfortable, and makes my fingers shake as I type and think about my father's relaying of these stories and the fear he still feels so many years later. It is important to speak this truth. It is important to tell the whole story; the other side of Fred's military service.

Circling back to what we heard and talked through during this year's community conversations, some people look to museums as the trusted source of information while others have no trust in us at all. In both cases, we need to prove that we are trustworthy. And one of the best ways to do that is to speak the truth, even if our voice shakes.