ICOM ICME 2023 FISH SKIN COLLECTIONS

I presented the paper: 'Arctic Fish Skin collections: Connecting Museums and Arctic Communities while Safeguarding Marine Natural Resources' at the ICOM ICME 2023 annual conference Museums and Change: Transforming our institutions for the future. ICME is the international committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) devoted to ethnographic museums and collections from local, national, and/or global cultures and societies. The conference took place at the impressive new building of the Néprajzi Múzeum Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. My deepest gratitude to Borka Bazsó International relations coordinator for the wonderful organization of the event and to ICOM UK for the generous Bursary Fund to present at the ICME 2023 International conference.

Museums with ethnological collections showcase artefacts and knowledge about humans and nature's relationships. Indigenous Arctic Peoples have developed for millennia highly specialised techniques for transforming materials such as fish skin into clothing and accessories. Fish skin material culture connects people and oceans revealing Arctic communities' technological innovation.

When consumers buy a bag or an item of clothing in a store, they do not consider the extraction of resources from the environment. However, this is a very different attitude from that of Indigenous Peoples' traditions. Fish skin artefacts share how Indigenous Peoples have inhabit the Arctic connecting with nature through sustainable living.

In contrast, in many parts of the world, humans exercise control over the environment and feel entitled to exploit it. The preservation of scarce natural resources could be achieved by adopting ancestral knowledge found in the Arctic societies experience.

https://icme.mini.icom.museum/icom-icme-2023-annual-conference/

https://uk.icom.museum/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ElisaPalomino_ICOMUK_Bursary_Report.pdf

Conference Photo: Laszlo Incze.

#arctic #fishskin #indigenousknowlege #etnological #museums #icom