Ontario Museum Association Conference

Basic Overview

For this conference, I attended it with my classmates, some of whom I travelled with and booked a room with them so in that way with the share cost to get from Peterborough to Hamilton. During the course of the day, I not only interacted with people from the heritage sector of the government, but also other museum professionals in the field and got contacts. This was a very interesting experience for me as I had not met any museum professionals outside of my programme in Ontario before. Getting to hear their experiences and other companies that work with museums was eye-opening for me.

Conference Itself

During the course of the day, I listened to some presentations. These were the ones I went to:

“Leadership and Uncertainty: Supporting our Teams and Ourselves through Uncharted Territory” by Dorota Blumczynska
“Last Stop: Community is Core to the Underground Railroad Story” by Abbey Stansfield, Adrian Petry, and Sara Nixon
“Living in Relation: A Story of Indigenous Partnership and a Process of Decolonizing” by Amber Holmes (Naawayaa) and Amy Dunlop
“Prioritizing Relationships: Practical Strategies for Community Building in Museum Management, Exhibitions, Policy and Programs” by Armandi Perla, Heather George, Raven Spiratos, and Sam Cronk
“Honouring Our Roots: The City of Hamilton’s Indigenous Landmarks and Monuments Review.” by Angela DeMontigny, Heather George, John Summers, Keith Jamieson, and Shelly Hill

I found all of these talks fascinating to listen to, and I saw how important it is to work with the community and Indigenous peoples around you. That way, you can get as many voices as possible heard and seen in one’s exhibit space. This was especially seen for me in the prioritising workshop, where the museum improved their relationship with the local queer community by letting them do activities within the museum space. It was also seen with the Living in Relation talk, where local Indigenous practices could be done in a museum and taught to the public through a local Indigenous person.

Click here to learn more about the conference.