Sirene Martin: Leading By Listening

By Alisha Proffitt • Photos By Matt Johnson

The work of repatriation generally enters public view only when objects leave museum collections. By then, years of consultation, documentation, and negotiation have already changed the organization itself. At the Speed Art Museum, Assistant Curator and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Coordinator Sirene Martin describes that transformation as one that encourages consultation rather than possession.

When Martin arrived at the museum as an intern in 2023, the Speed had completed portions of its NAGPRA obligations but had not established a formal repatriation program. Since then, she has developed inventories, organized documentation, and helped determine the museum's approach to the federal law requiring museums to consult with Tribal Nations about Native American ancestral remains and certain cultural belongings. 

"The most important part of this work is consultation. Meeting with tribal representatives allows us to build relationships, listen, and learn directly from the communities connected to these belongings."

"One of the biggest challenges has been managing my own concerns about presenting Native American culture as thoughtfully and authentically as possible." As a non-Native curator, Martin takes that responsibility very seriously.

"Research is an important part of the process, but so is listening. I regularly share the work with the Speed’s Native Advisory Council, a well-regarded team comprised of national experts whose guidance has helped shape the reimagined galleries. That collaboration has also been one of the most rewarding parts of the project. Their insight has made the Native galleries stronger and more connected to the communities they represent."

Those conversations have also changed Martin's understanding of curatorial work. Early in the process, she expected repatriation to move quickly. Instead, nearly three years passed before the museum prepared to return its first belongings to the Southern Cheyenne and Southern Arapaho Tribes. 

"That experience has taught me that patience and intentionality are essential. Because NAGPRA work is so sensitive, every step needs to be thoughtful and trustworthy. Consultation can carry a great deal of emotion, grief and hurt, and it is important to make room for all of that rather than moving too quickly toward an outcome."

In many ways, the work has also changed how she sees her role as a curator. "Academic training often teaches us to remain impartial and observe from a distance. Repatriation asks something different. It asks us to be fully present, to listen deeply, and to lead with empathy."

That empathy appears in the Speed's reinstalled Native American galleries. Instead of presenting Indigenous culture through a familiar arrangement of historical objects, the installation gives considerable space to two-dimensional works and portraiture. "As a ‘non-Native’ curator, I am always mindful that my perspective should not be the only one shaping the story. Portraiture became an important way to bring Native presence, identity, and individuality into the gallery and to allow those images to speak directly to visitors."

The galleries also introduce kincentricity, an Indigenous worldview that understands the natural world as family. Instead of treating the concept as a thematic label, Martin frames it as a question for visitors. What changes when the Earth is understood as a relative instead of a resource?

The newly rotated Native American gallery takes a step forward from older museum practices to better reflect Native voices and living cultures. "For many years, museums presented Native art mainly through a historical or ethnographic lens, which could make Indigenous cultures feel fixed in the past. That approach often overlooked the fact that Native communities are living, evolving, and continuing to create. In the Speed’s African Diasporic and the Native American galleries, we place historical works alongside contemporary art. That contrast helps visitors see a fuller story, one that honors tradition while also recognizing Native and African diasporic artists as active cultural voices today. It shows that these art forms are not frozen in history. They continue to grow, change, and shape the present."

"At its heart, What Awaits Us Will Be, Black is about resilience, continuity, and the lasting power of Black creativity."

Martin has also been hard at work on the museum's forthcoming African Diasporic galleries, organized under the curatorial thesis What Awaits Us Will Be, Black. The project draws inspiration from the Dikenga, or Kongo Cosmogram, a Bakongo symbol associated with the life cycle and the lasting nature of the human spirit. It also highlights the influence of Central African traditions through the work of Henry Gudgell, a formerly enslaved Kentucky artist whose art has been connected to Bakongo spirituality. The project traces the continuity of Black artistic traditions despite the violence of the transatlantic slave trade. "The title recognizes the devastating impact of the transatlantic slave trade, while also making an important point: Black artistic and spiritual traditions did not disappear. They survived, evolved, and continued to shape American culture."

"Museums have a responsibility to address difficult histories with honesty and compassion. The African and Native American collections carry complex and often painful stories, and it is important that we do not avoid them.

Museums can also create space for people to learn, ask questions and see history from perspectives that have too often been overlooked. That means using our independence as cultural institutions to tell fuller, more inclusive stories even when those stories are challenging," Martin explains. "At their best, museums can help people better understand the past while creating opportunities for dialogue, reflection, and connection."

Sirene Martin sees parallels between the Native American and African collections in the histories they carry. "Unfortunately, these collections share similar pains regarding erasure and stereotypes. Both demand to be seen and understood on their own terms, with their own art-historical understandings."

She ultimately hopes visitors leave with a broader sense of whose histories museums can tell. "African and Native history is simply human history, and if I do my job correctly, that shared humanity is illuminated in the galleries."