Field Museum needs petition signatures for ‘10,000 Kwentos’ project

Field Museum of Natural History. Photo from https://en.wikipedia.org

CHICAGO, Illinois–The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is starting a digital project called “10,000 Kwentos,” and is asking Filipino Americans to support it by signing an online petition.

Using an innovative concept called co-curation, this project will allow Filipinos to document and assist in the stewardship of their vast Philippine cultural collection at the Field Museum, which is currently in storage.

The collection includes 10,000 artifacts made and used by native peoples of the major islands of Luzon, Mindoro, Mindanao, Palawan and Sulu. Each piece has a story, or kwento. These stories can be preserved for future generations.

The Field strongly believes communities must be part of the conversation around their heritage, as they were users and producers of these material objects in the past and may continue to use them today.

The Field Museum and members of Chicago’s Filipino American community have an opportunity to digitally photograph approximately 8,000 artifacts from the Field’s Philippine Anthropology collection and upload the images onto a custom web portal to allow the public to comment on collection items.

The Filipino American community is the first to be invited by the Field Museum to showcase co-curation. But the Field Museum needs to show that the Filipino community supports this project.

An online petition drive has been initiated to show support for the Field’s initiative. At least 1,000 signatures are needed by March 12. It only takes 30 seconds to sign it:

https://www.change.org/petitions/filipinos-and-filipino-americans-and-friends-support-the-10-000-kwentos-community-project