Hatch Curator of Indigenous Art and Cultures

**The Organization**
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a cultural institution that showcases art, culture, and nature from around the world and across the ages. Among the top 10 cultural institutions in North America and Canada’s largest and most comprehensive museum, ROM has a world-class collection of 13 million artworks, cultural objects, and natural history specimens, featured in 40 gallery and exhibition spaces. ROM's mission is to transform lives by helping people to understand the past, make sense of the present, and come together to shape a shared future. The museum is known globally for expanding the boundaries of knowledge and presenting that knowledge in new and innovative ways within the intersecting worlds of art, culture, and nature. ROM's extensive exhibition schedule and public programs attract approximately 190,000 students and 1.3 million visitors or more in a typical year.

ROM’s collection of Indigenous Art and Cultures is significant within Canada, featuring more than 40,000 cultural objects, or belongings, and works of art from diverse lands and cultures. The collection includes important Indigenous ceremonial and cultural heritage items from many Indigenous communities spanning the last two centuries as well as important works of contemporary art.

**Community**
Toronto, located on the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, is the largest city in Canada and the most diverse city on the planet (as designated by the United Nations) with over 50% of the population being foreign born. The provincial capital of Ontario, it has a vibrant arts and culture scene, with over 164,000 culture jobs and numerous museums and performing arts organizations. Combining its original heritage architecture with the contemporary Daniel Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, ROM serves as a national landmark and a dynamic cultural destination in the heart of the city surrounded by universities, colleges, and specialized research centers.

Toronto was the first city in Canada to be designated as a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts and is also the fastest-growing technology market in North America, with 80,100 jobs created—greater than the job growth in New York City, Seattle, and Boston combined. The city has also been undergoing a construction boom over the last decade. This increased commercial development is coinciding with major transportation upgrades, including the $640 million revitalization of Union Station, Canada’s busiest transportation hub. Toronto also plays a significant role in the global film industry, serving as home to an international film festival and as a filming location for numerous television shows and movies. With vibrant neighborhoods that offer both urban and suburban living options, quality schools and access to over 50 kilometres of waterfront with beaches, parks, marinas, and waterfront trails; Toronto consistently ranks as one of the most livable cities in North America.

**Toward a Deeper Indigenous Partnership**
A top priority of ROM’s strategic direction is forging new and stronger relationships between Indigenous nations and communities, and museums. Indigenous people must have a leading voice in determining how their cultural heritage is cared for and shared.

In doing this work, ROM is informed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the recent Canadian Museums Association’s Moved to Action report as well as its 1994 Task Force Report on Museums and First Peoples, and by current museological practices.

ROM is currently recruiting staff with robust ties to Indigenous nations or communities for key positions across museum departments and activities. These critical positions include the Vettoretto Curator of North American Archeology, the Hatch Curator of Indigenous Art & Culture, and an Interpretive Planner in the Exhibitions Development department. These colleagues will join the recently appointed Manager of Indigenous Learning and Programs in a cross-departmental cohort to play a leading role in establishing protocols and practices for the care of Indigenous collections and cultural belongings, cultivating formal relationships with First Nations governments, developing exhibitions and galleries, and presenting Indigenous cultures. Recognizing ROM’s origins in colonial practices, the museum is expanding staff training and building internal capacity to create a welcoming work environment for Indigenous colleagues. The museum is in contract discussions with an Indigenous expert in policy and protocols to help us in this regard.

For over 35 years, ROM has worked with Indigenous communities to repatriate ancestors and objects of cultural patrimony from its collection. Over the course of the last year ROM hosted collections visits for 38 Indigenous groups and provided extended consultation with 19 Indigenous groups or individuals,