Place as boundary object: the Manitoba Oil Museum

Abstract

The Manitoba Oil Museum and Interpretive Centre (MOMIC) is a collection of people who work and live with oil extraction in the southwestern corner of Manitoba; they have met at annual events, share stories and photos, and induct a major oil contributor into the Manitoba Oil Hall of Fame. At first glance, the Manitoba Oil Museum appears to reify the legitimacy of resource extractive processes and valorize the contributions of key members of Manitoba’s oil industry. However, viewing the museum for the way it is enrolled in the place-making of oil in Manitoba as a boundary object can lead to a different conclusion. An examination of a DVD produced by the museum reveals the ways that boundary work engenders inclusion and exclusion of particular knowledge that operates to condition what is possible within the place-making of oil in Manitoba. This paper suggests paying attention to MOMIC as a place-making boundary object creates opportunities to reveal obscured knowledge-making practices, highlighting inherent critique, but also the limits of critique.

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