Regalia Leaves the Museum
Isobel, junior docent at the Clarke, wears a dress from the Randall Collection from the Clarke Historical Museum.
In Fall of 2018, the Clarke Museum participated in Sumeg Village day at Patrick’s Point State Park through the loaning of a museum dress and dentalium necklaces to be worn during a Dress Walk. The Dress Walk event is an opportunity for people to see the incredible dresses created by members of the tribe, dresses that are typically worn during ceremonial events and dances. The Clarke Museum dress was worn by Isobel, a junior docent at the Clarke and granddaughter of museum board president Shirley Laos. Board member Rachel Sundberg organized the dress walk and spoke with the public about the dresses and their making.
The Museum strives to balance public accessibility to artifacts for ceremonies and public outreach along with archival and cultural care of the items in our collections. The utmost care is taken to protect the structural integrity of the items while also ensuring that the items are strengthened spiritually through their participation in the dances. This program has been instrumental in helping revitalize local dance traditions as tribal members have been able to use and study regalia and create their own to start dancing again. We hope to continue supporting the continuing revitalization of the dances and supporting the continual communication between the past and present through the study of historic regalia and the creation of new regalia. For more information, see this blog post from 2018.
The Museum strives to balance public accessibility to artifacts for ceremonies and public outreach along with archival and cultural care of the items in our collections. The utmost care is taken to protect the structural integrity of the items while also ensuring that the items are strengthened spiritually through their participation in the dances. This program has been instrumental in helping revitalize local dance traditions as tribal members have been able to use and study regalia and create their own to start dancing again. We hope to continue supporting the continuing revitalization of the dances and supporting the continual communication between the past and present through the study of historic regalia and the creation of new regalia. For more information, see this blog post from 2018.