Refocusing Ethnographic Museums through Oceanic Lenses by Philipp Schorch

Refocusing Ethnographic Museums through Oceanic Lenses explores Indigenous museum practices at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Hawai'i, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and the Museo Antropológico Padre Sebastián Englert in Rapa Nui. The writers include Philipp Schorch, professor of museum anthropology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany; Noelle M K Y Kahanu, assistant specialist in American studies at the University of Hawai'i–Mānoa; Sean Mallon, curator at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; Cristián Moreno Pakarati, Rapanui historian and founding member of the research and educational organization Rapanui Pioneers Society; Mara Mulrooney, senior project supervisor at Pacific Legacy, Inc; Nina Tonga, curator of contemporary art at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; and Ty P Kāwika Tengan, associate professor of ethnic studies and anthropology at the University of Hawai'i–Mānoa. Together, these curators and scholars present an exciting alternative lens through which to view ethnographic museums and their collections (1, 15–17).

The book engages a uniquely cooperative structure, with three parts divided into two chapters each, the first of which is a collaboration between Schorch and one or more of the other authors and the second of which offers Schorch's additional analysis and reflection. The inclusion of Indigenous voices makes this work distinctive, providing views and analyses of museological representations that situate objects as "pastbecoming-present-becoming-future" (44). This makes the work ideal for those studying histories of museum display, art histories, visual studies, Oceanic material culture, anthropology, ontologies, and decolonization of museum representation.

Part I, "Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Hawai'i," describes the historical Native Hawaiian presence in the Bishop Museum and shows that the argument for decolonizing museological representation is not new. In chapter 1, Schorch uses a photograph from the Bishop Museum archives to demonstrate how Indigenous people are aware of and comfortable with inhabiting several spaces that are considered "in-between" by Homi Bhabha, while Kahanu describes her past experience as an employee of the Bishop Museum, where regular collaboration with Native Hawaiians was an important element for exhibitions. Currently, this kind of collaboration is less common, but Native Hawaiian representation persists. In chapter 2, Schorch reflects on his fieldwork, addressing how Native Hawaiians conceptualize the past as a consistent transformation that orients the present-day speaker toward the emergent future. He argues the importance of "rethink[ing museum] temporalities through Hawaiian lenses" as a dialogical practice (44), thereby reimagining the Bishop Museum as a transforming and living genealogical space. In this vein, as Marques Hanalei Maran explained, art "will never have the same mana because every person is different." Thus, there is a need to "'understand the intention and the reasons why those things are being made' so 'you can create new things with the same ideology and concept which will look completely different but will be telling the same story'" (Maran quoted in Schorch and others, 55). In other words, Indigenous pieces in the museum inspire reconnection with the times when their respective material cultures were actively practiced—a materialized conversation with both ancestors and present-day Native Hawaiians that represents the past-becoming-present-becomingfuture (60).

In part II, "Museo Anthropológico Padre Sebastián Englert, Rapa Nui," the first chapter includes essays by Pakarati and Mulrooney on the Métraux Photography Project, a collaboration between the Bishop Museum and the Museo Anthropológico Padre Sebastián Englert that aimed to reconnect and reengage the museum collections with the Rapanui community. In this project, the conversations with Rapanui about historical photographs at the two museums provided a space for the Rapanui to reclaim their past by making it relevant in the present and for the future. The following chapter, centered on Rapa Nui's history and transformation into "Museum Island" (16), discusses the various ways in which the people of Rapa Nui are reclaiming the island by curating environments and healing their past. The resurrection of history and memory is arguably best understood through a curational lens, as communicative and expressive actions that consist of disputes and compromise, providing new ways of thinking about Rapa Nui's possibilities.

Reshaping the legacy of German-Samoan colonialism is the main theme of part III, "Museum of New Zealand Te Pape Tongarewa, Aotearoa New Zealand." In chapter 5, Schorch and curators Tonga and Mallon discuss the mana taonga principle as another way to think about relationships between museums and Indigenous people (121), noting the importance of attending to the ways in which mana (often defined as culturally specific aspects of power and authority) "resides in and derives from cultural treasures (taonga)" (122). They consider a project Schorch developed that analyzed material items related to German colonization of Sāmoa through two lenses: German and Samoan. The collection of these materials allowed the cocreation of knowledge across epistemological and ontological boundaries. In the final chapter, Schorch further reflects on the changing ethnographic conditions surrounding these material expressions by including Samoan-German voices and discussing their contemporary artwork through the lens of material history. He investigates Samoan contemporary art as an intervention and response to German-Samoan colonial history, emphasizing the intertwining of colonialism, anthropology, art, and indigeneity with the ethnographic condition.

The book ultimately characterizes ethnographic museums as an "ethnographic kaleidoscope," recognizing that ethnographic conditions are ambiguous and dynamic (179). The metaphor of an "ethnographic lens" itself shows the ambiguity of the topic, as do the authors' unique perspectives. The book concludes with a short afterword by Tengan, who discusses maka (regeneration) as another refocusing lens that uses Oceanic epistemologies and ontologies to regenerate how ethnographic museums represent the past.

Refocusing Ethnographic Museums through Oceanic Lenses centers on the stories that objects may tell us when viewed from various Oceanic perspectives. The evolution of ethnographic lenses continues today as museums engage Oceanic communities with their collections. Many of the pieces show the interconnectedness and reimagining processes that take place between Oceania and colonial powers. The theme of past-becoming-present-becoming-future carries throughout the book, inviting readers to generate their own distinctive views or lenses for understanding ethnographic museums and the objects they house. This book is exciting because it emphasizes reconnecting with our ancestors and taking them with us to our present moment so we can create an intentional and unique perspective. It gives us permission to safely express ourselves and heal with the intention of acknowledging our ancestors' trauma.