Chip Colwell: Why museums are returning cultural treasures
Chip Colwell: Por qué los museos están devolviendo los tesoros culturales
Chip Colwell is an archaeologist who tries to answer the tangled question: Who owns the past? Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
and a museum curator,
back to where they came from.
objetos a su lugar de origen.
they're social and educational,
por su función social y educativa,
because of the magic of objects:
que cada objeto encierra:
hace un millón de años,
volar con la imaginación.
to gaze upon our human empire of things
en actitud de meditación y asombro.
tan solo en EE. UU.,
visits each year.
de 850 millones de visitas al año.
have become a battleground.
se han transformado en campos de batalla.
don't want to see their culture
del mundo que se resisten
en instituciones lejanas
which they have no control over.
culturales sean repatriados,
to their places of origin.
of the Parthenon Marbles,
de sus Mármoles del Partenón,
held by the British Museum.
alojadas en el Museo Británico.
que se encuentran en Alemania.
exigen la devolución
from museums everywhere.
exhibidas en museos de todo el mundo.
to those made by Native Americans.
al reclamo de pueblos nativos de EE. UU.
more than one million artifacts
han devuelto más de un millón de piezas
of Native American skeletons.
de indígenas estadounidenses.
let's start with the War Gods.
empezaré con los Dioses de la Guerra.
of the Zuni tribe in New Mexico.
zuni de Nuevo México.
began to collect them
comenzaron a coleccionarlos
indígena estadounidense.
piezas de gran belleza,
of Picasso and Paul Klee,
como las de Picasso y Paul Klee,
the modern art movement.
del arte moderno.
did exactly as it's supposed to
exactamente como debía
a little-known art form
artística poco conocida
a terrible crime of cultural violence.
un flagrante delito de violencia cultural.
is not a piece of art,
no es una pieza de arte,
que se celebra todos los años,
nuevos dioses de la guerra,
in a long ceremony.
un Dios de la Guerra.
rescatarlos de los museos
should be returned.
deberían ser restituidos.
contradicts the refrain
se contradice con la frase pronunciada
not just to drive movie plots,
el guion de sus películas,
innegable de los museos en una sociedad.
of museums for society.
with the Sonoran Desert's past.
del desierto de Sonora.
the city's bland strip malls
sus aburridos comercios sobre la ruta
just waiting to be discovered.
esperando ser descubierta.
I started taking archaeology classes
clases de arqueología
me ayudó a poner mi propio laboratorio
even helped me set up my own laboratory
had a dark history.
empleo tenía una historia oscura.
nativos de EE. UU.
became a tool for science,
a recolectarse de a miles
of social and racial hierarchies.
sobre las jerarquías sociales y raciales.
were plundered from graves,
fueron profanados de sus tumbas,
de los campos de batalla.
encontraban tumbas de blancos,
came across white graves,
vuelto a sepultar,
as specimens on museum shelves.
eran exhibidos en museos.
robadas, las escuelas de internado
boarding schools,
were on the cusp of extinction.
estaban al borde de la extinción.
but the labels don't matter
no importan los rótulos,
that over the last century,
were taken from them.
despojados de sus derechos y su cultura.
encabezados por estos pueblos,
through the US Congress,
a través del Congreso,
Native Americans to reclaim
que les dio el derecho a reclamar
and human remains from museums.
y restos humanos a los museos.
ser difícil de entender
how a piece of wood can be a living god
pueda ser un dios viviente
estar rodeados de espíritus.
especially with DNA,
moderna, especialmente con el ADN,
into the past.
Frank Norwick declared,
un trabajo muy importante
that benefits all of mankind.
all of this was an enigma
un enigma difícil de descifrar.
want their heritage back
quieren recuperar su patrimonio
que lo están preservando?
spend their entire lives
dediquen toda una vida
about living ones?
what to do next,
no sabía qué rumbo tomar,
former prison cell on Robben Island.
en la prisión de Robben Island.
a country bridge vast divides
a un país a zanjar enormes brechas
reconciliation.
a la reconciliación.
in the ruins of the past?
de esperanza sobre las ruinas del pasado?
of Nature and Science.
y Ciencia de Denver.
many other institutions,
diferenciarse de otras instituciones
the legacy of museum collecting.
qué hacer con el legado del museo.
the skeletons in our closet,
en nuestro propio armario,
nos contactamos con docenas de tribus
we met with dozens of tribes
these remains home.
esos restos a su lugar de origen.
who will receive the remains,
quién recibirá los restos,
become undertakers,
se transforman en sepultureros,
they had never wanted unearthed.
de familiares fallecidos,
y nuestros socios indígenas
and our Native partners
of the human remains in the collection.
los restos humanos de la colección.
hundreds of sacred objects.
de objetos sagrados.
that these battles are endless.
de que estas batallas no tienen fin.
of the museum world.
una política permanente de los museos.
more museums with more stuff.
en los museos públicos de EE. UU.
in an American public museum
al control de la ley de nuestro país,
beyond the reach of US law,
and outside our borders.
y están fuera de la frontera.
with a respected religious leader
con un respetado líder religioso
named Octavius Seowtewa
in Europe with War Gods.
que alojaban dioses de la guerra.
with a history of dubious care.
que había sido dudosamente cuidado.
had added chicken feathers to it.
le había puesto plumas de gallina.
un funcionario nos informó
is now state property
es ahora propiedad del Estado,
no longer served Zunis
ya no servía a los zuni
of the objects to the world."
los objetos al mundo".
would establish a dangerous precedent
podía establecer un peligroso precedente
claimed by Greece.
que Grecia reclama.
to his people empty-handed.
con las manos vacías.
the Ahayu:da so far away.
a los Ahayu:da tan lejos.
that's missing from a family dinner.
estuviera ausente en la cena familiar.
their strength is broken."
la fuerza colectiva se desmorona".
in Europe and beyond
de Europa y otros lugares
do not represent the end of museums
no representan el fin de los museos,
about one percent
de la colección completa.
500 cultural items and skeletons,
500 piezas culturales y esqueletos,
of its total collections.
el 99,99 % de su colección completa.
a los dioses de la guerra,
tradicional de los zuni,
vestimenta y piezas de arte.
que estos objetos,
with Native Americans
con los pueblos nativos de EE. UU.
to share their culture with us.
que compartan su cultura con nosotros.
to visit the returned War Gods.
que fueron restituidos.
overlooking beautiful Zuni homeland.
con vista a la bella tierra de los zuni.
by a roofless stone building
construcción de piedras, a cielo abierto,
sustraídos nuevamente.
of turquoise, cornmeal, shell,
de turquesas, harina de maíz, conchillas,
para seres ancestrales.
true purpose in the world.
de los dioses de la guerra en el mundo.
the histories that we inherit.
las historias que heredamos.
did not pillage ancient graves
no saqueamos tumbas antiguas
for correcting past mistakes.
de corregir errores del pasado.
a los nativos de EE. UU.,
the voiceless objects of our curiosity.
objeto sin voz de nuestra curiosidad.
to fully understand others' beliefs,
que comprendamos a fondo
places for living cultures.
sitios de una cultura viviente.
turn lazy circles high above.
volaba lentamente en círculos.
that their culture is not dead and gone
de que su cultura no está muerta,
for the War Gods to be.
para albergar a los dioses de la guerra.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Chip Colwell - Archaeologist, museum curatorChip Colwell is an archaeologist who tries to answer the tangled question: Who owns the past?
Why you should listen
Chip Colwell is an archaeologist and museum curator who has published 11 books that invite us to rethink how Native American history is told. His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian and TIME, while his research has been highlighted in the New York Times, BBC, Forbes and elsewhere. Most recently, he wrote Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture, which The Wall Street Journal dubbed "a careful and intelligent chronicle" and won a 2018 Colorado Book Award.
In 1990, Colwell fell in love with archaeology. Still in high school, he decided to make a life for himself discovering ancient windswept ruins across the American Southwest. But in college he discovered that archaeologists have not always treated Native Americans with respect. In museums were thousands of Native American skeletons, grave goods and sacred objects -- taken with the consent of Native communities. Disheartened, he planned to leave the field he revered. But an epiphany struck that instead he should help develop a new movement in archaeology and museums based on the dignity and rights of Native Americans.
When Colwell was hired as a curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, he had the chance to address the dark legacies of museum collecting. He and his colleagues began consulting with hundreds of tribes about the return of skeletons and sacred objects. In this work, Colwell realized, too, there was an important story to share that explored vital questions. Why do museums collect so many things? Why is it offensive to some that museums exhibit human remains and religious items? What are the legal rights of museums -- and the moral claims of tribes? What do we lose when artifacts go home? And what do we gain?
Chip Colwell | Speaker | TED.com