FM Pacific Curator in Taiwan

In November of 2018, Dr. John Terrell was a featured panel speaker at a conference for Taiwan’s National Museum of History. The panel, entitled “Professional Exhibition and Interpretation in Museums,” was part of the inaugural conference of the NMH’s new Museum of Archaeology, which opens to the public later this year.

Dr. Terrell discussed the ways in which museum staff must rethink curation of its collections, including co-curation and digital access. The presentation touched on the difficult topic of museums’ colonial origins, and colonial ideas that still abound today.

Guest speakers also had the opportunity to make their own barkcloth using Taiwanese techniques; while barkcloth is widely used across the Pacific today, it is unknown whether the ancient Taiwanese practiced the craft or learned it more recently.

Practitioners of barkcloth making from Dulan, Taiwan teach conference-goers how to make barkcloth starting from raw paper mulberry wood.