New Grant to Center Indigenous Voices and Values in Harvard Forest's Fisher Museum

Harvard Forest was recently awarded an Inspire! Grant for Small Museums from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services to support the development, design, installation, and evaluation of a new multimedia exhibit to center the voices and values of the Nipmuc people, the tribe Indigenous to the land occupied by Harvard Forest.

The Fisher Museum, which includes seven dioramas that depict landscape change beginning at the time of European colonization, continues to perpetuate a narrative of race-based harm and erasure. In collaboration with the Nipmuc community, the new content will seek to disrupt this systemic erasure through highlighting the Indigenous stewardship legacies that define the land today and offer resilience to the land of tomorrow.

The two-year grant, entitled Re-Centering Indigenous Perspectives in the Fisher Museum, will be led by artist-curators Nia Holley, artist and community organizer (Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band), and Tyler White, Graduate Student (Harvard Graduate School of Design). This project will be an extension of their work developing Harvard Forest’s new interpretive trail, To Be Seen: Manchage Manexit Reflective Trail. The work will be supported by Clarisse Hart, Director of Outreach & Education, and Emily Johnson, Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator. Video Editing support will be conducted by Roberto Mighty of Celestial Media LLC.

Learn more about the grant here.