Our digital indigenous studies project, THE RED ATLANTIC, explores internal settler colonialism versus external imperial colonialism.

 

Our Questions:

• Is there a different representation or story about Indigenous people and what happened to them produced by the American Museum of Natural History (NYC) versus the British Museum (London)?

• How do different types of colonialisms tell different stories about the encounter or the colonial project in 3 dimensions?

 

Using computational text analysis, we will analyze internal records to ask:

• What are the internal debates?

• What do the debates around changing exhibits sound and look like?

• What are the issues?

 

This digital archive places the museum’s narrative side by side with historical and artistic representations of culture created by indigenous scholars. Our objective is to use digital tools to open up spaces for indigenous scholars and artists within locations traditionally identified with dominant representations of colonialism.