Longyear Museum of Anthropology

Mission Statement

The Longyear Museum of Anthropology is a teaching museum at Colgate University. We promote anthropological learning through experiences with material culture, including teaching, research, and storytelling. By creating opportunities to share perspectives with one another, our aim is to foster mutual understanding among peoples with diverse backgrounds and worldviews. We recognize our responsibility to the living communities affiliated with the art and belongings we house. By using our platforms for advocacy, we strive to bring attention to the inequities many such communities may continue to face.

Vision Statements

• Globally and locally, we seek to build collaborative relationships with groups whose cultural materials are held in the Museum, especially the Onyota’a:ká (Oneida), upon whose land Colgate University sits, and the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) Confederacy.
• We commit to continuing work on decolonizing our museum practices. Our work is rooted in contemporary anthropology museum ethics of care that emerge from deep considerations for multiple communities’ rights and responsibilities in relation to their belongings and knowledge about them.
• We seek to facilitate access to collections—in digital and physical realms—that honors learning experiences, while also respecting necessary restrictions to culturally sensitive materials.
• We endeavor to provide different engagements with material culture--in some cases hands-on, and with an emphasis on sensory experiences that go beyond the sight-dominant, if appropriate.