TRIBAL RELATIONS MANAGER

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UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.

About the Burke Museum:
The Burke Museum cares for and shares natural and cultural collections so all people can learn, be inspired, generate knowledge, feel joy, and heal. The Burke was founded in 1885 by the Young Naturalists, a group of curious teenagers inspired by seeing Seattle transform before their eyes. For 135 years, the museum has built upon this legacy, collecting objects that help us understand how the Northwest has grown and changed.

Totaling over 18 million objects, the Burke’s collections help sustain cultural traditions, enable groundbreaking scientific research, and advance timely conversations that matter to us all. The collections are records of our past and investments in our future. The Museum’s curators—faculty members at the University of Washington—grow collections in anticipation of change: continued disruption to ecosystems, shifting cultural landscapes, and advances in technology we have yet to imagine. Our work is collaborative; we partner with institutions, students, communities, and people around the world to understand our past and create positive change in the future.

As both a University and State Museum, the Burke Museum is a public resource committed to building an inclusive environment that welcomes and values all people. We recognize that our history, from the founding to the present day, is built upon a colonial model of museums that consistently privileged collections, preservation, and research over cultural autonomy and community survival.
The Burke is committed to decolonization as a key institutional priority, and across the museum, we now work as facilitators and stewards, not as gatekeepers and sole authorities, to honor our mandate to truly be a museum for all. This position is responsible for supporting the development, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion & Decolonization (DEAI & D) procedures and processes across the whole museum.

Summary:
Funding from the Mellon Foundation Humanities in Place support will enable the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture to move into the next phase in its efforts to be an equitable and responsive partner to the Native American communities upon whose lands we live and work and whose material heritage we care for. Under the leadership and guidance of Tribes, this work will (1) build long-term sustainability for existing, mutually beneficial place-based programs and (2) identify further opportunities for authentic reciprocity and provide resources required to meet the self-identified needs and priorities of Indian Country, drawing upon the Burke’s collections as well as the museum’s specific locale: its home in the Pacific Northwest, on the University of Washington campus.

Reporting to the Director of Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion & Decolonization/ Tribal Liaison, the Tribal Relations Manager is responsible for managing all aspects of the Burke’s tribal relations efforts across the museum. This includes administrative supervision and coordination to ensure the development and implementation of tribal relations strategic goals that align with the Museum’s overall mission and goals, facilitate internal updates, and communicate with leadership team which will support the creation of a 3-year institutional road map for DEAI and Decolonization work at the Burke. This position is responsible to align all departments to identify and implement the DEAI institutional plan.

Responsibilities include:

Program Management: (55%)