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 title
Concepts Have Teeth: Digital Imaging and Blackfoot Material Culture in UK Collections
Project active
2020 - 2022
Research theme
Scotland's Material Heritage, Identities and Cultural Contacts

Contributors

Louisa Minkin - Principal Investigator
University of the Arts London

Andrew Meirion Jones - Co-Investigator
Stockholm University

Ian Dawson
Winchester School of Art

Thomas Allison
Independent Digital Imaging Specialist

Christine Clark
University of Lethbridge

Josephine Mills
University of Lethbridge

Danielle Heavy Head
Blackfoot Digital Library

Professor Jackson 2Bears
University of Lethbridge

Melissa Shouting
University of Lethbridge

Alison Clark
National Museums Scotland

John Giblin
National Museums Scotland

Alison Brown
University of Aberdeen Blackfoot Confederacy

Project contact

Contact list of staff members

Dr Ali Clark
Role
Senior Curator, Oceania
Email
a.clark@nms.ac.uk

Funded by

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