What are the stories your museum is not telling?

Recently, many museums and institutions worked towards uncovering previously hidden stories, expanding narratives and highlighting underrepresented voices, but there’s still a long way to go. Join us in discussion with Šiná Bear Eagle, Park Ranger at Gateway National Recreation Area, who will speak about her work amplifying Native voices at National Parks. Consider the untold stories in your own institutions during a facilitated conversation with Šiná, Rebecca Manski, and Brenna McCormick-Thompson. During the sessions, you’ll have an opportunity to join breakout rooms and talk through bringing new voices to the foreground.

Speakers

Šiná Bear Eagle is a member of the Oglala Lakota and Turtle Mountain Anishinaabe Nations, originally from Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She received her graduate degree in American Indian Studies from UCLA, studying the interpretation of American Indian history and continuing connections at National Park sites. She is currently a Park Ranger at Gateway National Recreation Area.

Brenna McCormick-Thompson is the Curator of Education at the Whaling Museum and Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. A historian by training with a passion for both maritime and New York history, Brenna has also worked at the South Street Seaport Museum, the New-York Historical Society, Historic Hudson Valley, and the National Maritime Museum in London. Brenna has a BA in History from Drew University and a joint MA in Global History from Georgetown University and King’s College London.

Rebecca Manski is an independent educator, curriculum designer and researcher specializing in the history of the Wall Street area, most recently based at the South Street Seaport Museum and Social Justice Tours Collective. Before moving to New York to complete an Interdisciplinary Masters in Public History and Middle Eastern Studies, Rebecca lived in Palestine, doing media and advocacy work with a plethora of Palestinian organizations between 2003-2008. Having also lived the first five years of her life in Jerusalem, Rebecca’s thinking has always been informed by issues of displacement, walls, borders, liminal spaces, the Commons, and decolonization.

Breakout Groups

Please indicate on your ticket which group you are most interested in joining and we will do our best to accommodate. 

Breakout group 1: Developing new programming: Doing our subjects justice. How can we go about researching and presenting new programming, and how do we go about seeking community buy-in? Facilitated by Brenna.

Breakout group 2: Navigating internal and external obstacles to telling underrepresented stories. How do we make choices about who we center, when? What are the stories we tell ourselves, or hear from others, that get in the way of highlighting absent narratives, and how do we push through? Facilitated by Rebecca.

Breakout group 3: Hiring, supporting, empowering and retaining BIPOC educators. What are some helpful ways to empower BIPOC educators to take a lead role in telling “their” story if they want to, without burdening them? How can BIPOC educators navigate experiences of racism and how can their employees and fellow educators support them? Facilitated by Šiná.

Cost: Free for Members,
$10 for Not-Yet-Members
$8 for Student Not-Yet-Members

Or, for $20 more, become a NYCMER member! You’ll be able to view recordings of the sessions as well as access our full archive of resources, attend monthly professional development and networking events for free, purchase discounted admission to our annual conference, and more!

    Annual Individual Membership – $30
    Annual Student Membership – $20