Concepts Have Teeth

Concepts Have Teeth was an AHRC networking project with a team of Blackfoot-led researchers, artists, archaeologists and museum professionals working to connect historical Blackfoot objects held in collections in Britain with the Niitsitapi.

Last updated: 17 January 2023

About the project

The UK network was led by Louisa Minkin in conjunction with Knowledge Holders of the Blackfoot people and colleagues from National Museums Scotland, the University of Southampton, the University of Lethbridge, Canada.

The title of the project is taken directly from political anthropologist Audra Simpson: "Historical perceptibility is used, and is still used, to claim, to define capacities for self-rule, to apportion social and political possibilities, to, in effect, empower and disempower Indigenous peoples in the present. Such categorical forms of recognition and mis-recognition are indebted to deep philosophical histories of seeing and knowing [...] And so it is that concepts have teeth and teeth that bite through time." — Audra Simpson, 'Ethnographic Refusal', Junctures, 2007, p.69

The project used digital imaging techniques, art-based public engagement and spatial web technologies. These tools looked to improve the ability of Blackfoot people to interact with their historical objects and recover and shape their own narratives surrounding them.

At National Museums Scotland the project is focused on collections of Blackfoot quillwork and beadwork. The outputs included 3D digital models of museum objects, an online digital platform Mootookakio'ssin, an exhibition in Canada, and a forthcoming publication on digital imaging in archaeology and cultural heritage.

Project contact

Find out more

Concepts Have Teeth: Blackfoot objects at National Museums Scotland

Blackfoot Digital Library Collection

Mootookakio'ssin

Indigenous Art Studio Students: Stories for British Museums