The Portland Art Museum is revisiting its policies after an employee condemned an Indigenous visitor for wearing a traditional woven baby carrier.
As OregonLive reported, the incident, which occurred on Saturday, sparked backlash online and had many calling out the museum.
The Indigenous mother was viewing the Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe exhibit when the employee approached her and said she had to take off the baby carrier because it violated the museum’s policy surrounding bags; the museum bars visitors from wearing backpacks in the facility.
The mother refused to remove the carrier and left the museum instead. She took to Facebook to share her experience on Monday, where she also shared a picture of her baby smiling in the carrier when they were inside the exhibit.
“The Portland Art Museum – where being Indigenous is cool as long (as) you are part of the exhibit and not actually practicing your culture,” the woman wrote in a screenshot of her post shared on Twitter. “The irony: we were at an Indigenous art exhibit. Racism is alive and well in these walls.”
The Portland Art Museum quickly commented on the woman’s post that afternoon and apologized before sharing a public apology on Instagram and Twitter.
“We deeply apologize for causing harm in this interaction,” the statement read in part. “We are devastated that the family had a negative experience at the museum, especially in an exhibition celebrating Native American art.”
— Portland Art Museum (@PDXArtMuseum) March 14, 2023
Later, the museum clarified that it wants everyone to feel welcome at the facility and would be “changing visitor policies regarding baby carriers to address this immediately and prevent it from happening again.”
The Portland Art Museum’s curator of Native American art, Kathleen Ash-Milby, said the incident illuminates the contentious relationship between Indigenous communities and museums.
“The relationship between Native people and museums has not always been an easy one,” she said, OregonLive reported. “We are really working hard to build our relationships with our local Native constituents and I think this makes us all really sad that it happened and it could be setting us back in those relationships.”
She also said the museum included many traditional woven baby carriers in its Native American art collection.
Museum spokesperson Ian Gillingham confirmed the institution’s leadership met over the weekend to ensure they take immediate action and make their policies more inclusive.
