Scottish Museums Federation (SMF) Conference 2025: Protecting the past, preserving the future
Caird Hall, Dundee
Monday 12 May.
As Museum & Heritage Studies students assisting with the Shared Island Stories project, we are interested in how current discussions within the museum sector crossover with the project’s themes. We attended the SMF Conference last Monday on behalf of the project and witnessed a series of interesting talks and panels held by experts in their fields. At the forefront where topics such as financial stability, engaging audiences, and building resilience in challenging times.
In the afternoon, we decided to participate in the workshop Old Stuff: An Environmental Story held by Clémence Aycard. The workshop explored the relationship between the factors causing the planetary emergency, urging us to think beyond our carbon footprint and to think critically about the social crisis that enables climate change and destructive industries to persist.
It was emphasised that there is a responsibility of heritage organisations to address the planetary emergency by safeguarding the past and making collections accessible for future generations. The workshop also called attention to the suitability of these organisations to inspire action to mitigate the ecological threat and support communities in adapting to the changing environment through their capability to reach a wide audience.
After the presentation, we were tasked with thinking about the environmental stories that every object can tell as well as noticing details we might not have looked at. Each group was presented with two objects to consider using prompts related to their potential wider environmental implications. By questioning the material of the object, its function, and what it represents, we explored different ways of engaging with our collections through an ecocritical lens.
We found these exercises particularly interesting because they matched two of the Shared Island Stories’ key aims:
- To identify and shed light into hidden or unfinished stories of empire. Which collections from the Islands tell unfinished stories?
- To seek solutions to shared challenges such as climate change and assess the role of young community members in relation to the climate justice debate.
Our conversations with other museum professionals about approaching objects through their environmental stories inspired us to think about how our work can benefit society, culture, and the well-being of those we interact with every day.
The workshop highlighted how one object may reveal how our social behaviours have changed and what that may mean for the next generations. The stories documented as part of Shared Island Stories can similarly help us consider how communities approach their heritage amidst the changing environment and how it can be protected in the future.
Isabel Hernandez
Veronika Vit
Emily Garrow