February 21, State Museum Nature and Human

Last Friday, the focus at the State Museum Nature and Human was on the 3D digitisation of Tlingit objects. How can objects preserved in European museums be made accessible to the Tlingit in Alaska? What are their wishes, and what added value can an interdisciplinary project like DiViAS create?
We were especially delighted by the participation of Joe Zuboff & Garfield George, leaders of the Deisheetaan Clan (Tlingit), Dr. Chuck Smythe, senior ethnologist at the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Dr. Claudia Roch, curator at the Übersee-Museum Bremen, Dr. Gudrun Bucher, research associate at the State Museum of Nature and Human Oldenburg, Dr. Rainer Hatoum, provenance researcher at the Städtisches Museum Braunschweig, and Dr. Peter Bolz, retired curator of the North America collections at the Ethnological Museum Berlin.
The workshop was part of the "Materiality" case study within the DiViAS project, organised by Dr. Ivonne Kaiser & Jennifer Tadge (Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch Oldenburg) and Simon Albers (Jade University of applied sciences). A huge thank you also goes to the museum's conservation team.
Beyond digital methods, the objects themselves surprised us with new stories—which have been in the museum since the 1840s.
We look forward to continuing this exchange—perhaps even with a follow-up workshop in Alaska?