LAI Ying-Ying received her Ph.D. degree in art education and art administration from the National Taiwan Normal University. She is a professor at the Graduate School of Arts Management and Cultural Policy, National Taiwan University of Arts, a Board member of ICOM-COMCOL, and a council member of FIHRM, Federation of Human Rights Museums. She served as the Deputy Director at MOCA, Taipei and worked over 20 years as a senior curator at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Ms. Lai has curated many exhibitions, such as the World According to Dada, Gravity of the Immaterial, Labyrinth of Pleasure, CLOSE UP: Contemporary Art from Taiwan, Wind from the South: Contemporary Art of Taiwan, etc. She is also the author of Museum and its Social Significance, Contemporary Arts Management, A Reflexive Study of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum’s Exhibition, Taiwanese Avant-Garde, Complex Art in the 1960s, The Complex Art, and Journey of Art.
Personal Statement My research is primarily focused on Taiwan's indigenous peoples and archaeological sites in the Nanke region. In recent years, I have been dedicated to conducting comparative research related to material culture among various indigenous tribes in Taiwan, using archaeological findings from the Nanke region. Through collaboration with indigenous communities and the artifacts unearthed in the Nanke area, I aim to establish contemporary connections with archaeological artifacts, enriching our understanding of the material culture associated with Taiwan's indigenous peoples. Education PhD in Ethnology.（June 2010） National Chengchi University,Taipei,Taiwan. Experience Associate Researcher at the National Museum of Prehistory. （2018-present） Assistant Researcher at the National Museum of Prehistory. （2011-2018）
The Nanke Archaeological Museum, located in Tainan City, Taiwan, houses a collection of unearthed artifacts from archaeological sites within the Nanke Science Park. Among these artifacts, there is a significant archaeological culture dating back 500 to 300 years ago, which shares a close connection with the Siraya People. These archaeological artifacts include beautifully carved bone bracelets, iron knives, and perforated turtle shells possibly used in rituals. These items are no longer in use among the Siraya and have not been preserved within Siraya society. The Siraya hopes to study these archaeological artifacts and initiate a cultural revitalization movement. The Nanke Archaeological Museum provides these artifacts to the Siraya for close observation, fostering a collaborative effort that makes the Nanke Archaeological Museum's collection of archaeological artifacts practical and relevant.
Lyssa C. Stapleton is the Director of the Waystation Initiative and graduate certificate program in Cultural Heritage Research, Stewardship, and Restitution at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Stapleton serves on the Program & Special Events Committee and DEI Subcommittee for the Wende Museum in Los Angeles and acts as the advisory archivist for Los Angeles based textile designer, Gere Kavanaugh. Lyssa Stapleton’s scholarship examines the link between archaeological site looting and the art market. She is interested in the evolution of collections stewardship in the 21st century, with a particular focus on unprovenanced cultural objects in museums and private collections and the challenges of repatriation and voluntary returns. Trained as an archaeologist and a curator, Stapleton has conducted fieldwork in Armenia, Albania, Hungary, and the United States where her research looked at the relationship between material culture in funerary contexts and social roles, and particularly at ancient woven artifacts. As a curator she specialized in the stewardship of archaeological textiles, the decolonization movement, and the ethics of collecting. She holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Museums as well as private individuals are increasingly aware of the violent history of colonialism attached to the collecting of cultural objects. Yet the process of voluntarily returning archaeological and ethnological material to communities and nations of origin is challenging, particularly for individuals outside museum institutions. The UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology has introduced a groundbreaking new initiative called the Waystation that returns cultural objects. The Waystation critically addresses the challenges of returning these materials and will develop and share new standards for their restitution and create a space for renegotiating and redefining ethical collecting and stewardship. The initiative focuses on developing new practices, forging connections, and creating narratives among professionals working with cultural objects and the communities that created them. Via international partnerships with community members, universities, culture ministries, and other stakeholders the Waystation will maintain a network dedicated to defining twenty-first century approaches to returning cultural heritage. Our presentation will describe the framework of the initiative and the various definitional, legal, and organizational challenges of establishing it. We will discuss strategies for incorporating different cultural perspectives, building standards, developing and maintaining stakeholder networks, and working with and listening to traditional knowledge and living members of communities.
Dr. Shadia Abdrabo is Senior Curator at the Sudan National Corporation for Antiquities & Museums. She was awarded her PhD in Archaeology at the University of Khartoum for her research on faience production in ancient Sudan. Dr Abdrabo has worked on a variety of international fieldwork projects throughout Sudan. She is interested in how archaeological fieldwork and museums can work together to communicate an understanding of the past to people in the present. Currently, she is the director manager of regional museums in Sudan.
The displacement of cultural artifacts that has been taking place all over the world has generated an on-going global debate about the ownership and possession of museum collections and the repatriation of cultural property. These questions surrounding artifacts of cultural heritage do not stop us as museum professionals from speculating on the potentials for carving out a new space of dialogue beyond this debate. This paper will conceptually explore the importance of engaging the local communities within the countries where archeological artifacts were discovered and displaced, and the potential avenues for providing community access to these collections housed abroad. Through my practical experience as a leading museum professional currently working with the Sudanese National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums, I will share my experience and insights into the challenges and possibilities of connecting local communities with their displaced heritage to fully realize these artifacts’ cultural potential. By focusing on the Sudanese Nubian collections held in museums outside of Sudan, I will demonstrate that these connections are not only beneficial to the local communities but they will also promote the value of museum contributions by providing a broad range of social and cultural benefits towards those communities who lost their collections and heritage.
Hui-Hsieh Lin currently serves as a Research Assistant at the Museum of Archaeology, Tainan Branch of the National Museum of Prehistory in Taiwan. Her responsibilities revolve around museum exhibition and educational event planning, as well as the integration of theater and transdisciplinary arts within the museum context. Additionally, Lin has held the position of International Exchange Coordinator for both the National Museum of Prehistory in Taiwan and the Tokushima Prefectural Torii Ryuzo Memorial Museum in Japan.She is also an active member of the research team engaged in the Torii Ryuzo Research Project at NMP.
This study looks at the academic exchanges and collaboration on the interpretation of manuscripts written by Torii Ryūzō (on anthropological research left behind after the Japanese occupation of Taiwan) between Taiwan’s National Museum of Prehistory and the Tokushima Prefectural Torii Ryūzō Memorial Museum that have been underway since 2021. Besides the perspective of Taiwanese and Japanese scholars, the study looks at how interpretations may be made by integrating the perspective of the Indigenous community of Taiwan and explores the possibility of returning the authority of cultural interpretation to this community and the possible role of the museum within this process. In the overall historical and environmental context of its era, Torii Ryūzō’s research must not be viewed outside of its relationship to colonialism. Based on a contemporary perspective, this study focuses on expanding the value of his research past the manuscripts themselves by inspiring Taiwanese Indigenous people to look again at the history of their colonization, turning the content of the manuscripts into a force in their favor while advancing the museums’ practical and diversified efforts at promoting decolonization.
CHAI Chen-Hsiao is an associate research fellow and chief of Exhibition Division of the National Museum of History, adjunct assistant professor of the Graduate Institute of Museum Studies at Taipei National University of the Arts. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology at National Tsing Hua University. Her specialized research fields include cultural anthropology, ethnic studies, transmigration, overseas Chinese studies, museum and cultural performance.
Eunice Báez Sánchez has developed her career in the museum sector, boasting a versatile career spanning museum consultancy, cultural journalism, and vital roles in press management and marketing for diverse cultural endeavors. Currently, Eunice holds the position of Chair at ICOM Costa Rica and serves as Co-Chair at the Museum of Identity and Pride (MIO), the first LGBTIQ+ museum in the region. In addition to these roles, she brings her expertise to the forefront as a Communication Consultant for the UNESCO Regional Multisectoral Office in San José, Costa Rica. Eunice's academic background includes a master's degree in World Heritage and Projects for Development from the University of Turin, equipping her with advanced knowledge in heritage, cultural, and creative industries, as well as development. Eunice Báez Sánchez stands as a dedicated advocate for culture, heritage, and the vital role of communication and culture as a catalyst for meaningful positive social change.
The Museum of Identity and Pride in Costa Rica is a project that emerged in 2018 from the conviction and need of activists from the LGBTIQ+ community to preserve their memory. After the triumph of the equal marriage ruling in this small Central American country, activists identified that it was important to preserve the history of that and other struggles that preceded it. It was too dangerous to assume that all the struggles had been fought. While Costa Rica is known for being a peaceful country with no army, human rights have been violated and attacks have been made against people from the LGBTIQ+ community. But how to preserve that past while reflecting on the present? The answer came in the form of a museum. Through an exhaustive process of co-creation we arrived at the motivations, objectives and name of the now Museum of Identity and Pride, which is called "MIO" which in Spanish means mine. Mine, yours, ours.
Museologist and cultural manager based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. COMCOL member. I have worked in national museums since 2014 (Yrurtia Museum and Evita Museum). I have studied sex diversity representation in Argentine museum collections since 2018.
The Archive is an independent organization whose goal is to conserve and make visible Argentine trans lives and history. Exiled activists who had to escape from Argentina because of police persecution, needed to know about each other. Therefore, they created a Facebook safe group where they started to share current and old pictures about themselves and their colleagues . In other words, they achieved to collect their personal stories. Some years later, when the Argentine political context allowed it (same sex marriage, gender identity laws), different shows conceived by the Archive took place. Firstly, in small and safe places, but sooner, big exhibits were held in public institutions in Buenos Aires. Later, they were invited to perform in the rest of the country and abroad: exhibits, conferences, workshops, films. Despite the synergies they have created with different public cultural institutions, the Archive has never wanted to be absorbed by any of them, no matter the government ruling. This decision brings a few questions to ask about contemporary collecting and exhibiting from the perspective of public archives and museums, such as the role they have had in the process of delegitimation of queer lives.
My research is based on the comparative study of Taiwan and Japan. In recent years, I focus on the following topics: public history and museums, intangible cultural heritage and museums, and eco-museums. Public history suggests the purpose, method and contemporary significance of new historical writing, and museums are the pioneer media for the practice of public history; the ideas of intangible cultural heritage, which officially debuted in the international community at the end of the 20th century, reflects on the significance and productivity of cultural heritage. , which has a profound echo with the discussion in the field of museums; fifty years since its initiative, the eco-museum has attached great importance to the openness, participation and contemporaneity of cultural interpretation rights. Started as revolutionary propositions, today it has become a basic consensus. What I pay attention to is, how this very influential museum initiative takes root in different social and cultural contexts.
Chao-Chieh Wu is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at National Taiwan University and also serves as a research assistant in exhibition department at the National Museum of History, Taiwan. Her research interests cover the material culture of Taiwan Indigenous groups, museum anthropology, as well as the history of ethnographic collecting and display. As a professional museum curator, she has worked in museums and storages for 16 years. She has also developed further interest in cultural memory behind the objects and the connection with cultural heritages. Her recent research centers on lepec, a kind of Taiwanese indigenous textile that were widely collected by museums worldwide during the colonial period: she is exploring the history, local memory, and contemporary practice associated with these textiles.
During the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945), lepec, which is a kind of funerary textiles of the Paiwan indigenous group in Taiwan, were acquired for ethnographic collections as part of efforts to assert colonial authority. To comprehend the significance of lepec, I apply a social life of collections approach in which I argue that we must consider the collecting contexts and the dispersal of the textiles into world-wide collections at the time when indigenous societies in Taiwan were forced to undergo significant changes. Furthermore, I emphasize the importance of considering the materiality of lepec. By doing so, we can gain fresh insights into how they found their way into collections and how they can contribute to contemporary cultural revival and revitalization initiatives within the Paiwan source community. This approach advocates for a more nuanced understanding of lepec's historical and cultural roles, emphasizing their material and cultural significance beyond their classification of collections.
HUANG Yulun is a Curatorial Assistant Researcher at the National Museum of Prehistory (NMP) in Taitung, Taiwan. With over a decade of experience at NMP, she has held roles in the Department of Archaeological Site Development since 2016 and previously worked in Exhibition and Education from 2011 to 2014. Her responsibilities have included leading exhibition projects and community collaborative programs, including the recently renovated long-term exhibition that debuted in May 2023. With a background in museum studies and cultural anthropology, her primary focus lies in Austronesian cultures and Indigenous Peoples within the context of museums and contemporary phenomena. Her ongoing academic interests revolve around how ethnographic museums represent and perpetuate evolving cultures and how these museums respond to both academic theories and social movements.
My museum journey began at a university-affiliated ethnographic gallery. It featured glass cabinets assigned to different ethnic groups, each showcasing traditional costumes. However, as an anthropology student conducting fieldwork in Indigenous communities, I realized these displays fell short of capturing the true essence of these cultures. Ethnographic museums have long focused on ethnic clothing as a key aspect of their collections, but in today's complex world of multifaceted identities and cultural hybrids, these exhibits no longer suffice. In 2022, the National Museum of Prehistory made a significant shift by acquiring wearable fashion pieces from Taiwan Indigenous designers and artists, challenging stereotypes and shedding light on various aspects of Indigenous life. This case study highlights the importance of ethnographic museums collecting fashion and explores their role in contemporary cultural representation and engagement with Indigenous communities.
Dr. FANG Chun-wei is an associate curatorial researcher and the head of Department of Exhibition and Education at the National Museum of Prehistory in Taiwan and an adjunct associate professor at National Taitung University. For two decades, he has conducted research on Austronesian communities in Taiwan, Indonesia, and Fiji. He has also been involved in Indigenous museum development and training projects in Taiwan since 2017. His work has focused on the cross-cultural and comparative studies of museological and cultural diversity. He has published on ritual, religious conversion, and emerging cultural revitalization among Taiwan’s Indigenous Bunun people, and has edited two books on Atayal weaving.
Sophia has worked as an educator and research consultant in arts and visual culture for the last 12 years. She has taught on visual culture, arts education, globalization, and the sociology of art at undergraduate and master’s levels. She has worked on cultural policy consultancies, cultural entrepreneurship training and arts related research projects across Africa (for UNESCO, HIVOS, Arterial Network, SACO). Since late 2020, she has been working (through the Goethe Institut South Africa), with 12 museums in Africa, South America and South Asia, exploring ideas and practices of museology from Southern perspectives. Sophia obtained her master’s degree in Sociology at the University of Freiburg, Germany, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India and the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she is finalising her PhD. Her doctoral project investigates politics of identity, loss and heritage through a study of the African art collection at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
Chelsea Wang works for National Museum of History (NMH, Taiwan), Creativity and Marketing Division. She is active as programmer of creative crossover projects for museum, and focuses on developing the connection of museum licensing system and creative industries for years. She is also Young Board member of COMOCL since 2020, she also work with Florencia Croizet build up COMCOL Young Professionals Network since 2019. She also received her Ph.D. degree in Art Management and Culture Policy from National Taiwan University of Art. Contact: musechelsea@gmail.com
Mr. Ting-sheng Lai holds Ph.D. in Computing. He joined the National Palace Museum in November 2000 and was mainly responsible for the implementation of the National Palace Museum's digital projects, such as "Digital Museum", "Digital Learning", etc., which were the earliest IT projects among museums in Taiwan at that time. Therefore, he devoted himself to introducing several innovative applications of information technology at that time, including: "online learning", "online exhibition", "mobile guide tour", "digital exhibition", etc. Since 2011, he has been assigned to work related to visitor services and education, mainly responsible for visitor statistics and analysis, visitor questionnaires, educational activities, and training, etc. Since 2017, his research interests have focused on digital archive data analysis and the application of open data.