De-Colonizing the Museum of Us

Please join us to sit in community and engage in a conversation where we discuss concepts in decolonizing museum practice and look at tangible examples that center Indigenous authority and redress colonial harm. These include the creation of new museum policies and procedures, an exhibition that interprets the inherent colonialism of a historic museum façade, and processing through changing colonial exhibit panels.

Brandie Macdonald (she/her) is the Senior Director of Decolonizing Initiatives at the Museum of Us, which resides on the homeland of Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego, California, USA. Brandie is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation with Choctaw and Scottish ancestry. Brandie's work focuses on systemic change within museums through the implementation of anti-colonial and decolonial theory in-practice, which centers truth-telling, accountability, and actionable change to redress colonial harm. Brandie is enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Education Studies at University of California, San Diego. Her research, which aligns with her work as a practitioner, focuses on the sustainable application of decolonial praxis in museums that enables transformative change and decolonial movement building – domestically and internationally. She’s a Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow, an American Alliance of Museums’ Nancy Hanks Award for Professional Excellent recipient, a Smithsonian Affiliate Fellow at the National Museum of the American Indian, and sits on the Western Museums Association board.