Integrating Research and Collections Management

The Ho‘omaka Hou Research Initiative at the Bishop Museum

in Museum Worlds
Author:
Mara A. Mulrooney Bishop Museum mara@bishopmuseum.org

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Charmaine Wong Bishop Museum charmaine@bishopmuseum.org

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Kelley Esh Bishop Museum kelley.esh@gmail.com

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Scott Belluomini Cultural Surveys Hawai’i sbelluomini@culturalsurveys.com

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Mark D. McCoy Southern Methodist University mdmccoy@smu.edu

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/armw.2016.040105
Keywords:
collections-based research; digitization; museums; objects; Oceania
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ABSTRACT

The Ho‘omaka Hou Research Initiative is a collaborative research endeavor that is primarily focused on the analysis of the Bishop Museum’s Archaeology Collections. The goal of Ho‘omaka Hou (which literally means “to begin again”) is to encourage continued work with these invaluable museum collections, and to bring together researchers and students with various research interests in order to learn more about the past. In addition to conducting research on museum collections using the most up-to-date methods in the field of archaeology, we are building a digital inventory of the collections. This integrated approach highlights the relevance of archaeological collections housed in museums for informing researchers about the past, and also emphasizes the need for modernizing digital inventories to safeguard these collections for the future.

Contributor Notes

MARA MULROONEY is the Director of the Cultural Resources Division at the Bishop Museum. She directs the Ho‘omaka Hou Research Initiative and is currently involved with field and collections-based research projects on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Nihoa, and Hawai‘i Island. Her research interests include landscape archaeology and exchange in Oceania.

CHARMAINE WONG is the Archaeology Collections Manager at the Bishop Museum. She holds an MA in anthropology from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and a BA in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her interests include household archaeology, settlement patterns, and mortuary practices.

KELLEY ESH is a Research Affiliate of the Bishop Museum. She is a zooarchaeologist whose research explores changes in resource use in eastern Polynesia.

SCOTT BELLUOMINI is a project director at Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i. He holds a BA in anthropology from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His research interests include landscape archaeology, subsistence strategies, and land use prior to European contact in the Hawaiian Islands.

MARK D. MCCOY is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at Southern Methodist University and a Research Affiliate of the Bishop Museum. He is a landscape archaeologist whose research centers on the development of ancient political economies and human ecodynamics in Oceania.

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Museum Worlds

Advances in Research

Cover Museum Worlds
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
12
Keywords:
collections-based research; digitization; museums; objects; Oceania
Print Publication Date:
01 Jul 2016
Online Publication Date:
01 Jul 2016
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2016

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