The Creation of a Hall Dedicated to the Sami People at the Museo Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo in Mexico City

Exhibition review Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2024 JANUARY-JUNE 2024 OJS Índice / Contents The Creation of a Hall Dedicated to the Sami People at the Museo Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo in Mexico City Ir a versión en español DOI: 10.30763/Intervencion.299.v1n29.78.2024 • YEAR 15, NO. 29: 294-303 Submitted: 12.03.2024 • Accepted: 12.04.2024 • Published: 31.07.2024 Luis Alejandro Mosquera Delgado Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía (encrym), Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (inah), Mexico | orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0289-8374 Translated by Carmen M. Plascencia ABSTRACT The following is a brief review about the creation process of the Sala del Pueblo Sami (Sami People’s Hall) in the Museo Nacional de las Culturas (mncm, National Museum of World Cultures, Mexico City), of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (inah, National Institute of Anthropology and History). The purpose of this work is to reflect on this type of experiences as an essential part of the training of postgraduate students in Museum Studies and Practices of the Escuela Nacional de Restauración, Museografía e Historia (encrym) also part of the inah. KEYWORDS museum exhibits, museography, collections of indigenous communities T his is a brief review regarding the process of creating the Sami People’s Hall in the Museo Nacional de las Culturas, of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. It aims to reflect on this type of experiences in museum training and practice. This begins by identifying the actors involved in the exhibition project, then by addressing the methodology and tools implemented during its development, and ends with my reflections on the challenges and significance of carrying out this type of activities. The Creation of a Hall Dedicated to the Sami People at the Museo Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo in Mexico City CONVOCATORIA 2024 CALL FOR PAPERS 2024 294 Exhibition review Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2024 JANUARY-JUNE 2024 OJS Índice / Contents The Sami People’s Hall exhibition1 was mounted as part of the training and learning of the students from the Postgraduate in Museum Studies and Practices (pemp) of the Escuela Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museología, and was the result of inter-institutional collaboration between the encrym and the Museo Nacional de las Culturas, two spaces that are part of the inah. This collaboration was enriched thanks to the support of the embassies of Sweden, Norway, and Finland, consolidating the spirit of cooperation that has characterized the recent life of the Postgraduate in Museum Studies and Practices, created in 2020. It is worth mentioning that the Laplanders Hall (Sala de los Lapones) is the precedent of the current exhibition. This was one of the permanent exhibitions with which the mncm was inaugurated in 1965, and which remained active until the beginning of this century. From a museographic point of view, the Laplanders Hall contained a staging composed of a taxidermy reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) sample, which sought to highlight the importance of herding in said culture. In addition, there was a sleigh and a male costume made of reindeer skin (Figure 1). These elements were found next to a tent inhabited by the costume of a Sami woman, a figure surrounded by everyday objects (a reindeer skin bag, two metal pots, a ceremonial drum, among others) and a cradle (Figure 2). FIGURE 1. Male gákti, sleigh and reindeer in FIGURE 2. Staging of a tent inhabited by the Laplander’s Hall, of the Museo Nacional a Sami woman, crib and belongings in the de las Culturas (Source: Photo Library of the Laplanders Hall (Source: Photo Library of the mncm, 2020; courtesy: Secretaría de Cultura- mncm, 2020; courtesy: Secretaría de Cultura- inah-Museo Nacional de las Culturas del inah-Museo Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo-mex; Reproduction Authorized by the Mundo-mex; Reproduction Authorized by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia). Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia). Nomadic indigenous peoples who inhabit the territory that includes the countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. 1 The Creation of a Hall Dedicated to the Sami People at the Museo Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo in Mexico City CONVOCATORIA 2024 CALL FOR PAPERS 2024 295 Exhibition review Intervención ISSN 2448-5934 ENERO-JUNIO 2024 JANUARY-JUNE 2024 OJS Índice / Contents The collection was created in 1964 thanks to an ethical procurement process. It is classified this way because the Sami family of last name Blind was involved; they provided the objects and, in exchange, received financial remuneration from the inah. Other objects that were purchased in specialized places were added. The ethnographer Barbro Dahlgren participated in this process, in collaboration with the Nordiska museet (Nordic Museum) in Stockholm. Through these efforts, the Museo Nacional de las Culturas managed to acquire this collection, expressly made to be exhibited in the museum. Almost five decades after the collection was formed, the challenge of a second museographic approach to Sami culture arose. The director of the museum, Alejandra Gómez Colorado (ma), and the curator, Reynier Valdés Piñeiro (ma), proposed a perspective focused on the decolonization of this people and its culture. Then, and with the curatorial script in hand, made by Valdés Piñero, the encrym participated in creating, developing, and assembling the museographic script. The postgraduate students developed the conceptualization process in the first two semesters of their studies, during the sessions of the modules: Project management and The exhibition as a means of communication. The curatorial script, provided by the already appointed curator, was used as the starting point. This process continued during the second semester of the Specialization in Museography (Figure 3), where the museographic design, proto typing, as well as the production of the exhibition were developed. By the beginning of 2024, between January and February, the assembly was carried out and inaugurated on February 28 of the same year. Below are the most important stages of this process. The perspective of the new exhibition is framed in the current vindication of the struggle of the Sami peoples, who seek to preserve their culture and their pastoral practices as a people or social group that inhabited the territory before the emergence of current national borders. They also share customs, traditions and eco nomic, cultural, social and political institutions (Cámara de Diputados, 2003). Thus, this new curatorial project leaves behind the name Laplanders Hall, since it was imposed on them and, thus, a term with colonial implications, so the members of said culture do not identify with it. Therefore, this name is understood as part of a system of repression “on the ways of knowing, of produci (...truncated)