Digital Repatriation: Constructing a Culturally Responsive Virtual Museum Tour

Abstract

This paper describe a project that involved educators and three Native American communities in the construction of a virtual tour now available on the Web site of the National Museum of the American Indian (http://www.conexus.si.edu/). In fall 1998, the Pueblo of Laguna Department of Education, the College of Education and Graduate School of Library and Information Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and the Smithsonian＊s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) began the first collaboration that brought Native American students, teachers, and cultural representatives to the NMAI George Gustav Heye Center in New York City. The virtual tour makes extensive use of QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR). The panoramas of the exhibition space serve as an interface for accessing the featured objects selected by the students. Clickingon a hot spot over the museum display of a featured object causes the QTVR object to load in a separate Webpage frame accompanied by an interpreted essay written by a student. Clickable floor plans of the exhibition-space offer another method of navigating the virtual tour and accessing the virtual objects.

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