Meet the Glenbow Museum's first director of Indigenous engagement and reconciliation

Amber Shilling says new role will foster collaborative relationship with First Nations

Calgary's Glenbow Museum now has a director of Indigenous engagement and reconciliation, and she says stepping into the role is humbling and critical for the museum industry.

Amber Shilling is Anishnaabe, from Mnjikaning First Nation in Ontario, on her father's side. She was born and grew up in Treaty 7 territory before completing her PhD at the University of British Columbia in 2020.

There, she focused on how urban Indigenous youth utilize technology to engage with culture and language.

Now, Shilling has returned to Calgary for the newly created role at the Glenbow — where she used to take field trips as a child — to help the museum reimagine what it means to engage respectfully with Indigenous communities.

"It's an incredible opportunity to have such a critical role, I think, in the reimagining of what the Glenbow can be within Calgary," Shilling said.

"But also what it means to reconcile with the whole museum industry."

Engagement and understanding

The Glenbow closed its doors for three years starting at the end of August as major renovations started on the building, and welcomed public feedback on the project.

Part of that process involved consulting with Indigenous communities in Treaty 7 territory and across the country.

In August, Melanie Kjorlien, the museum's chief operating officer and vice-president of engagement, said the Glenbow wanted to ensure that communities whose culture is represented in its collections were actively involved.

And Shilling says this engagement helps foster an understanding of the complex relationship Indigenous communities have with museums.

They were developed with a colonial mindset, that "white gaze," she says, and display artifacts that have not been repatriated. 

"Roles such as these are desperately needed within the entire galleries, libraries, archives, museums," Shilling said. 

"We really need to be mindful of Indigenous people having that self-determination and that right to tell our own story, to say what we need to say — in an appropriate way, in a respectful way."

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