Looking Back to Move Forward: Continuing Community-centric Practices for Conservation and Collection Care of Pacific Collections in an Australian Museum

The changing role of conservation necessitates the facilitation of space through which spiritual and physical interactions occur. Enabling balance between collections and communities past and present, establishes respect and acknowledgement for diverse cultural knowledge. To formalise this, a Methodology for Cultural Safety and Care was co-developed during the redevelopment of Te Pasifika exhibition at Museums Victoria (2018–2020). The framework looks to the past, to address the inequities in Pasifika representation and voice in cultural collections, then to the present, to create a robust platform for community-centric storytelling in Victoria, Australia, with respect to wider Moana (ocean) values. This centres orality, collaboration and community, drawing from cultural practice, ‘new’ guidelines for collection management, conservation and collections care, while providing a platform for collective Pasifika voices in an Australian context. Access to museum collections by members of a culturally diverse Pasifika diasporic community in Victoria, Australia, is integral to cultural maintenance and community wellbeing. Cultural knowledge continually transcends generations, moulding identities in new contexts, fluidly evolving, while adapting, changing and responding to community needs. The methodology challenges the rigidity of traditional museum ideology. Normalising Indigenous practices and values in a museum context removes distance between all involved and humanises museum practice, benefiting both those who interact with taonga (cultural treasures) and the taonga themselves. Reflecting on the implementation of this methodology, we emphasise the need to elevate cultural values as museum practice, affirming the viability of creating ongoing opportunities for community input.