From tormented romanticism to loving diversity: Representing Indigenous Arctic cultures in the National Museum of World Cultures

In 2014, the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden (now part of the National Museum of World Cultures – NMVW – Netherlands) organized an exhibition with the work of the photographer Jimmy Nelson, entitled ‘Hail the People!’ Nelson visited and depicted Indigenous people all over the world in ‘remote’ areas and he also portrayed Arctic cultures: Nenet and Dolgan people in Siberia. Nelson called his photo-project ‘Before They Pass Away’. By organizing the photography exhibition, the National Museum of Ethnology became part of the discussion that was emerging around representation, exoticism, authenticity, ownership and activism of Indigenous cultures. In 2020, this same museum obtained artwork of the Greenlandic/Danish artist Julie Edel Hardenberg, including two photographic art pieces. While the work of Nelson and Hardenberg are not related to each other, a discussion of both cases sheds additional light on the complexity of representations. This article deals with the riddles and drawbacks of the romantic staged photography exhibition versus Indigenous activism with its provocative self-representations; this in turn may also unveil the difficult position of anthropological museums juggling with representation and the ‘Who owns culture’ debate for Indigenous peoples, commercial marketing and museums.