New Media and the Museum

I was pretty surprised (and then of course not surprised) to see this story about yet another hipster appropriation of Aboriginal material culture. The Inuvialuit project I will discuss in class today aims to digitally recontextualize Inuvialuit material culture currently in storage at the Smithsonian… including snow goggles. As museums digitize and circulate Aboriginal cultural heritage online, are they facilitating return of control to communities to represent themselves, or opening up their cultural heritage for commodification and exploitation? Are good intentions undermined by the medium?