The Indigenous Art and Culture Roundtable met at the ARLIS/NA conference
in Philadelphia on Monday, March 9, 1998 from 1:00 to 2:30 PM.  

Fourteen members attended; they were: Barbara Mathe (American Museum of
Natural History-NYC), Mary Hernandez (University of Arizona-Tucson),
Victoria Bohm (Metropolitan Museum of Art-NYC), Laurie Whitehill Chong
(Rhode Island School of Design-Providence), Ilga Lya (Nova Scotia
College of Art and Design-Halifax, CA), Melva J. Dewyer
(retired-Vancouver area, CA), Kathy Zimon (1999 program co-chair,
Calgary, CA), Ona Kalstein (art dept. Free Library of Philadelphia),
Ross Day (Goldwater Library MMA-NYC), Edith Rights (African Art
Museum-Tenafly, NJ), Janet Stanley, Judith Herschman (UCLA Arts
Library), Karen McKenzie (Art Gallery of Ontario-Toronto, CA), Meg
Cunningham (Mount Holyoke College-South Hadley, MA).

After introductions, the continuation of Meg Cunningham as
coordinator/moderator was unanimously affirmed.

Ross Day alerted the group to the ARLIS/NA Collection Policy Statements
website and urged the members in attendance to get their institutions to
contribute to the site.

The rest of the meeting was largely devoted to discussion of possible
programs for next year's ARLIS conference in Vancouver.  Some of the
issues discussed and decided upon were:

1. Emphasis of the program should be Pacific Rim and First Nations
cultures.
2. That there should be heavy representation of members of First Nation
cultures among the speakers and panelists, including contemporary
artists and art dealers.
3. That we seek joint sponsorship with the Academic Library and Museum
Library Divisions, as well as the Diversity Committee.
4. That the program address issues of identity, especially claims of
ownership and repatriation of museum objects to indigenous groups.

Possible formats for the programs were discussed extensively.  A
consensus emerged that we should try to have both a Keynote session and
another session, perhaps as an Ask ARLIS session.  A workshop format was
rejected as being too exclusionary as well as the attending membership
could not think of a topic appropriate for training purposes.

Barbara Mathe, Melva Dewyer, Karen McKenzie, and Kathy Zimon identified
possible speakers from the Vancouver area museums and archives.  It was
agreed that they would try to line up participants.

Meg will submit the appropriate forms for board approval.

Respectfully submitted,

Judith Hershman