Museum of Us

San Diego’s Museum of Us has engaged in decolonizing practices to repatriate cultural artifacts to the local Kumeyaay people with support for culture fortification. It advances action under four interdependent principles of decolonization: truth-telling and accountability, rethinking ownership, culture shift supported by systems and policy, and Indigenous representation. The Museum is viewed as a leader in the museum sector for its proactive implementation of policy intended to return cultural belongings, ancestors’ bodies, and funerary items to the Indigenous communities to whom they rightfully belong.

This report summarizes the Museum of Us’ decolonizing initiatives to rebuild trust and relationship with the Kumeyaay community, how this partnership came to be, and lessons learned along the way for other museums interested in attempting similar repair work.

Recent grant history