Nicholas Waller

Social Anthropology
M.S.
Ph D student
International Museum Studies

About

• Member of Museum Ethnographers Group (MEG), U.K. 2006-2008.
• Member of International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) 1998-.

Areas of interest

Museum Anthropology, landscape, memory, animism, indigenous peoples rights.

Current research

Identity and Memory in Crow Indian Landscape and Material Culture
Among the indigenous peoples of North America, land and water are important sources and symbols for cultural, spiritual and physical survival. Landscape is the source for the sustainability of cultural, economic, and social development. These same human systems are also expressed in the creation and use of material things. For the indigenous cultures of North America, landscape can be seen as the provider of the raw material for producing objects, providing the ideas for producing objects, and providing the environment in which objects are to be used.

The purpose of this research project is to explore, recreate and retell the Crow Indian landscape through the assistance of historical Crow material culture housed in museums in Europe and to define parallels between the roles of material culture and landscape within Crow social and cultural identity and explore how the past is reflected in the present. Crow objects hosted in museum collections are recontextualized in an environment that is artificial to an object’s origin. By transposing Crow museum objects over the original cultural environment, this research will examine how the socio-historical landscape has changed, how the uses of objects have altered, how continuity exists among the Crow, and examine how generating new knowledge affects the cultural identity of the Crow.

Teaching and tutoring

Course Tutor for Museums and Communication, International Museum Studies Master Programme, 2008- .

Field experience

• 1998 Short fieldwork in Jokkmokk, Sweden for a study on Sámi youth and identity.
• 2003 Fieldwork at Museum of World Culture in connection with my Master’s project The Spirits of Things: Understanding Crow Religious Experience and Museum Custodial Practices. Funding provided from The Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences in Göteborg.
• 2009 Fieldwork in Montana, USA on the Crow Indian Reservation.