JuLY 15, 2013

Research Strategy

The Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum

Executive Summary
This is the first joint Research Strategy that the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum have ever produced. It provides a clear, flexible framework to guide research activities at both museums over a ten-year period. It was developed after broad internal and external consultation. It was also developed in consideration of the essential role played by research now, and in the past in the lives and prospects of both museums as unique, irreplaceable stewards of the countrys past. It identifies a set of research principles that will guide work at both museums, and nine main areas of activity, grouped under three broad headings. It also takes into consideration the role of national museums at the federal level in helping Canadians understand the history of their country. A. Meaning and Memory 1. Museological Leadership 2. Memory and Commemoration 3. Contemporary Canada B. First Peoples 1. The Changing North 2. Aboriginal Histories C. Compromise and Conflict 1. 2. 3. 4. Power and Politics Population Movements and Settlements Canada and the World Cultural Expression

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A Working Definition of Research

The Museums consider research the systematic investigation of sources, materials, methods, or theories to create new knowledge and new understandings in areas of professional interest. This includes the history and cultural heritage of Canada, and the ways in which such subjects are maintained, interpreted, or shared by the Museums in their capacities as public institutions.

Background
The Canadian Museum of Civilization is descended from the National Museum of Canada and the earlier Geological Survey of Canada. Research remains a core corporate activity of both it and the Canadian War Museum, central aspects of near-encyclopaedic Canadian history mandates. Research provides the essential basis for collecting and preserving the national collections. It helps interpret them to Canadians, spreading knowledge and stimulating discussion of a shared past. Research is critical to the Museums reputation, impact, and influence. Its intelligent pursuit demands deep expertise, passion, and excellence in outcomes. It also demands planning and responsible management, and clarity of choice. Finally, research plays a critical role in linking both Museums to a national network of partners and affiliates. The Research Strategy coordinates and focuses research at both Museums. In developing it, the Museums, for the first time, reviewed their research opportunities and challenges jointly, comprehensively, and for the long-term. The result provides a clear but flexible framework to guide research activities for approximately the next ten years. It establishes strategic direction and priorities, as well as objectives and selected examples of measurable outcomes. Finally, the Research Strategy will enable the Museums to better concentrate talent, effort, and resources; to gauge and manage progress; to explore and develop a national partnership network; and to share results. In fall 2011, the President and CEO asked senior staff to produce a document that would coordinate activities, identify opportunities, and focus additional attention on Canadian history in the Museums research profile. The Research Strategy was also intended to complement two other ongoing corporate efforts: a Partnership Strategy, and a Public Engagement Strategy. It has also occurred against the backdrop of substantial organizational changes at both Museums in 2012-2013.

Process
Please see Appendix A, Process and Principal Contributors.

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Principles
Strength in research is both a foundational element of the Museums work, and a key component in public trust, institutional support, and visitor engagement. Through research excellence and innovation, the Museums operate and are seen to operate as responsible, valued contributors to civil society. Research engages and informs audiences, strengthens capacity, and stimulates public interest. It depends upon interdisciplinary work across and amongst professions and peer networks, and leverages specialist knowledge into media, the arts, audience development, public culture, and education. In creating and disseminating knowledge, or in offering or encouraging new perspectives, the best research helps explain Canada (and the world) to Canadians in honest, creative, and open dialogue with themselves. Research supports institutional priorities and is always linked to short- or long-term public outputs. The Research Strategy has been guided by the Museums awareness of their privileged position as trusted public institutions, by a deep and historic commitment to research, and by a determination to remain flexible, but focused, in the face of change or opportunity. The Museums research approach adheres to the following broad principles. These recognize the intrinsic challenge and complexity of research, as well as its necessity and multiple uses. They also recognize vital, if less tangible, factors such as ingenuity and diversity of voice, and the type of working culture trusting, generous, multidisciplinary essential to its successful pursuit. These principles are:

Accountability
The Museums are public institutions with demonstrable, transparent accountabilities. Museum research is measurable and responsible within this framework, both internally to colleagues or peers and externally to visitors, partners, or supporting agencies. Accountability is welcomed, shared, and regularly reviewed.

Relevance
Research helps define the Museums as learning institutions, meaningful and relevant to Canadians. It creates, encourages, and shares new knowledge and new understandings. Research embodies an active dialogue, a relentless curiosity, between present and past. It is creative, courageous, and responsive, broadening or deepening its capacities in light of new challenges or new possibilities.

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Inclusiveness
Museum research respects, explores, and reflects the diversity of human experience, opinions, and modes of inquiry in Canadian history. It welcomes complexity and contingency. Its broad narratives and specific voices are equally essential, and mutually reinforcing. Inclusiveness in research is both an attitude, or patterns of thought, and a commitment, or patterns of behaviour.

Credibility
Museums are trusted, valued, and supported largely because of the excellence, reliability, and impartiality of their research, and their responsible stewardship of stories and collections. Their leadership and reputations derive from credibility: authority and authenticity, infused with openmindedness and civic engagement.

Strategic Priorities
Strategic priorities for research will inform resource deployments, organizational structure, and Museum outputs for the next ten years. They will also influence the ways in which Canadians experience or respond to the Museums as public institutions. They do not constitute an exhaustive list of Museum research, the richness and complexity of which will always include smaller, shorter-term, or time-urgent projects in response to unique opportunities, associations, or changes. They also overlap and inform one another, with subjects and approaches shared across issue areas. They do, however, demonstrate the Museums intention to communicate and plan for specific and substantial efforts in these areas, and a determination to measure progress against those objectives listed against each priority. Strategic priorities equip the museums with a clear, defensible tool for responsible decisionmaking and resource allocation. They also focus the Museums diversity of efforts on long-term projects that permit capacity building, fund-raising, deep research, and innovation. The Research Strategy identifies three areas of concentration, and nine activity centres.

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A. Meaning and Memory This theme has a distinctly contemporary focus. It examines events and ideas that have shaped Canada and Canadians since the early twentieth century, and how these and older issues are examined or commemorated. It also develops the Museums leadership role in core aspects of their museological mission. 1. Museological Leadership 2. Memory and Commemoration 3. Contemporary Canada B. First Peoples This theme recognizes the centrality of First Peoples to Canadas past, present, and future, and promises to broaden and deepen research in this area. Specifically, it encompasses the multiplicity of Aboriginal narratives and accomplishments, and the nature of lived experience and encounters, with particular emphasis on Canadas Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. 1. The Changing North 2. Aboriginal Histories C. Compromise and Conflict This theme explores Canadians moving, managing, or mobilizing in response to change, upheaval, or opportunity. Population movements, including immigration, feature prominently here, as do patterns of power, political engagement, the land, community building, and economics. It encompasses both compromise and conflict, and the ways in which these have shaped identities and modes of cultural expression. It links Canada to the world, and the world, across both time and place, to Canada. 1. 2. 3. 4. Power and Politics Population Movements and Settlements Canada and the World Cultural Expression

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THEME A: MEANING AND MEMORY

1. Museological Leadership Subject
To deepen and share museological knowledge, research, and best practices

Why?
Both Museums are uniquely positioned to exercise responsible leadership roles in Canadian museology. They can leverage experience, capacity, reputation, and relationships into critical explorations of audience engagement, interpretation, collections management, exhibition development, and other subjects. With the advent of two new federal museums the creation of partnership and affiliate networks, and greater emphasis on public outreach, the Museums can also act as conduits of learning and awareness between and among institutions of public culture. Such functions are critical to the Museums continued success.

Objectives
The Museums will encourage a systematic, collaborative approach to the conduct and dissemination of museological research and innovation. They will codify and share best practices within a centre of excellence framework. Ideas and products will be critiqued at the development stage by multidisciplinary, visitorcentred teams. This work will emphasize continuous learning, responsible stewardship, and public access to research and collections. Objectives include:
1. A transparent research policy. The Museums existing research policy is a quarter century old. Its revision will provide clarity, practical guidance, and a framework for reviewing progress. 2. Early, flexible creative development of key projects. Museum efforts (e.g., exhibitions, web sites, or multimedia)will benefit from earlier, multidisciplinary input. Open, regular development cycles will speed projects and improve content. They will also normalize patterns of critical comment and approval, and encourage shared ownership of projects. 3. Expertise in visitor encounters with exhibitions and new media. Public comfort with personal media is both opportunity and challenge. It demands deeper research and developmental flexibility, in addition to the project-specific strengths each Museum has tentatively developed.

Examples
Consistent sharing of research, experience, and best practices Creation of a permanent, multidisciplinary testing lab (e.g., prototyping) for internal use, and sharing with the public A bi-annual symposium on exhibition development and collaboration A fellowship or internship program for emerging museum professionals

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THEME A: MEANING AND MEMORY

2. Memory and Commemoration Subject
The memories and histories of decisive events and difficult subjects that are of national significance to Canada

Why?
Upcoming major anniversaries provide the Museums unique opportunities to play constructive, leadership roles in helping Canadians remember a shared and sometimes difficult past, and to see decisive events from multiple perspectives. These are complex, rewarding challenges. By facilitating personal and community histories, by using material culture in creative ways, and by working with a broad range of partners, the Museums can use dramatic events to stimulate memory, explore competing narratives, and raise historical literacy (e.g., the recent 1812 exhibition or the current Confederation project).

Objectives
Over the next ten years, the Museums will present public histories of several nationally significant events. These are large, multi-year initiatives with multiple partners and overlapping layers of activity. The Museums will encourage the discovery and sharing of diverse views and fresh historical perspectives. They will also present honestly, but respectfully, for public understanding issues of contention or debate, and stimulate contemporary discussion of important historical subjects. Its main objectives are:
1. The 150th anniversary of Confederation. This work, to conclude in 2017, includes exhibitions, collections, and public programs, and links to other federal initiatives on the Road to Confederation. It also embraces multiple views of what it means, and has meant, to be Canadian. 2. The First World War (100th) and Second World War (75th) anniversaries. These multi-year projects overlap, concluding in 2018 and 2020 respectively. They include major, high-season exhibitions and off-site programs. 3. Using selected commemorations to explore concepts of myth, memory, and nation. These opportunities will focus attention on key events, explore diversity, and interpret difficult subjects.

Examples
The 1867, Empress of Ireland, and Terry Fox projects (CMC) First and Second World War and Korean War projects (CWM) Deliberate exploration of traumatic pasts (e.g., Africville or residential schools)

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THEME A: MEANING AND MEMORY

3. Contemporary Canada Subject
Everyday life in contemporary Canada (Canadian history in living memory)

Why?
Neither Museum documents or studies systematically everyday life in contemporary Canada, defined loosely as Canadians lived experience. But the period has been one of accelerating change, dramatic impact, and reshaped identities. Current trends in popular culture (e.g., globalized entertainment or instantaneous communications) highlight the magnitude of centennial difference. The Museums are uniquely placed to generate perspective and deep understanding of such complex or unsettling change. This socially responsible, proactive role vital to cultural institutions enables diverse audiences to find themselves in broader narratives. It is also an obligation: assisting future Canadians to understand their past, and our present.

Objectives
Social media, strong collections, and new technologies willfacilitate documentation of todays Canada for the appreciation of tomorrows. Stories that reflect diverse experiences and that move beyond stereotypes will connect contemporary audiences to the Museums, welcoming their engagements and opinions. Oral histories and electronic outreach are among those techniques promising disproportionate positive impact. It is also critical to draw on recent research demonstrating Canadians personal and family connections to history. Objectives here are:
1. Chart the personal impact of social movements and public policies. This explores social and political change at the individual and community levels. Multicultural policy, the welfare state, the cooperative movement, and environmentalism are topics. 2. Document the evolution of national identity since the 1940s. Grassroots initiatives and political policies in this era encouraged the recognition of a distinct Canadian voice (or voices) in many fields. Canadians adopted, and debated, the elements and symbols of national identity, or rejected nationalism altogether. 3. Explore the realities of contemporary life for Canadas First Peoples. This theme explores Aboriginal Peoples cultural engagements with modernity, environmental change, and globalization, evolving concepts of tradition, political mobilization, and new avenues of social expression.

Examples
Canadian responses to the welfare state Expo 67 and competing nationalisms in the 1960s Popular mobilization in Aboriginal communities Targeted oral history projects

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THEME B: FIRST PEOPLES

1. The Changing North Subject
The importance to Canadian history and identity of Arctic and sub-Arctic peoples, cultures, and experiences

Why?
The Museums research helps to contextualize and understand the impact of rapid change in Canadas North, especially for Inuit, Canadas fastest-growing demographic. Trade, administrative devolution, scientific exploration, communications, international security, and global warming (the latter felt disproportionately in the worlds Polar Regions) affect Northern perspectives of land, identity, and traditional knowledge. Rich, unique Northern experiences and expressions, explored within and alongside larger dialogues of economics, sovereignty, or environmental stewardship, are timely, essential contributions to intercultural relations and the Norths future prospects.

Objectives
The Museums will leverage traditional research and unparalleled collections strengths in Arctic archaeology, ethnology, military history, and art into creative ways of exploring and documenting this shifting human ecology, in partnership and collaboration with Northern peoples, communities, and colleagues. There are three principal objectives:
1. Enhance or develop local partnerships. The development of northern museums and heritage networks presents the Museums with unprecedented opportunities for sharing or enhancing expertise, collections, and capacity, locally and nationally. 2. Explore the regional impact of federal governmental initiatives. Northern peoples, cultures, and identities have been dramatically affected by governmental initiatives from the South, including Arctic exploration, economic penetration, sovereignty protection, and national security. 3. Examine changes in traditional knowledge and cultural practices. Arts, crafts, and other forms of cultural expression have evolved, in part, as strategic responses to modernity, globalization, and historical patterns of intercultural exchange. Collections research and interpretation will help situate such knowledge and practices against the backdrop of broader societal and environmental change.

Examples
Research links and knowledge sharing with selected Northern partners The continuing impact of Arctic exploration and national security on northern life Northern artistic expression as responses to social, economic, or political change

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THEME B: FIRST PEOPLES

2. Aboriginal Histories Subject
Knowledge, professional practices, and collections related to the history and presence of Canadas Aboriginal Peoples

Why?
The histories and cultures of Aboriginal Peoples are central to all Canadians understanding of their shared past. Respectful exploration of the interwoven, often difficult, histories of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Peoples is a responsible, timely contribution to contemporary Canada, and to global understanding of Aboriginal Peoples. The quickening pace of social change amplifies the urgency and utility of museum research and community engagement in the coming decade. In addition to its academic, interpretive, or stewardship functions, such work will also address issues of social responsibility, building upon, in particular, the Canadian Museum of Civilizations strengths, capacities, and institutional experience with First Peoples.

Objectives
There are four principal objectives in exploring and sharing Aboriginal narratives. These will be pursued in the context of multi- and interdisciplinary work, community engagement, appropriate forms of consultation, and continued awareness of the importance and sensitivity of the Museums efforts to Aboriginal Peoples.
1. Represent Aboriginal histories and cultures within broader Canadian narratives. Researchbased public products (e.g., permanent exhibitions) and long-term research programs and commitments will reflect and communicate to visitors Aboriginal cultures, experiences, narratives, and perspectives. 2. Explore inter-cultural engagement and its continuing impacts. Inter-cultural engagement, including Aboriginal resistance, will be explored as a decisive historic and contemporary factor in Canadian culture, politics, and identity. 3. Broaden understanding of Aboriginal history before European contact. This includes the examination of trade networks, cultural diversity, and environmental impact, and the movements and activities of First Peoples across time and place. 4. Deepen efforts to support First Peoples stewardship. Collectionsbased research and administrative support for culturally sensitive materials identification, repatriation, and museological capacity will remain vital aspects of the Museums relationships with Aboriginal Peoples.

Examples
Incorporating Aboriginal histories within the revised Canadian History Hall The experience of First Peoples in Canadian military history Public archaeology or field work in conjunction with Aboriginal communities Training, assistance, and partnerships, including the Aboriginal Training Program

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THEME C: COMPROMISE AND CONFLICT

1. Power and Politics Subject
The role and practice of power, politics, and leadership in Canadian history

Why?
The distribution and exercise of power and influence, collective and individual choices, decision making, leadership, and politics broadly defined represent a rich cluster of research themes. This includes not only the rise of the modern Canadian state, but also traditional structures of governance and authority in Indigenous societies, grassroots movements, collective action, and the history of political participation. Traditionally under-represented in museum collections, political history narratives are complicated and complemented by multimedia tools, including digitized material. Such narratives must reflect Canadas multicultural, multiethnic fabric, the forces of globalization, and an honest recounting of both conflict and compromise.

Objectives
Both Museums are well-positioned to play leading roles in this area. The War Museums recent success in telling complex, sometimes difficult, political narratives can be drawn upon more broadly to frame substantial projects. Collections practices, especially at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, will also reflect this commitment. Critical junctures, for both Museums, occur in the period leading to 2017, when work on the revised Canadian History Hall will parallel efforts to mark multiple national anniversaries. Objectives are:
1. Depicting the evolution of Canadian democracy. Canadas historical path towards greater equality, justice, and political representation has been difficult and uneven, and remains incomplete. It is also one of the worlds most remarkable constitutional achievements. 2. Exploring multiple concepts of political power, influence, and nationalism. Debates over politics, power, community, and nationhood feature as prominently in Canadas past as in its present. The Museums will present multiple voices and unique perspectives on these, and encourage visitor and public engagement. 3. Documenting Canadian efforts in support of global security. From the early twentieth century, Canadian military and diplomatic efforts in war and peace were focused outside North America. This objective examines the World Wars, Korea, and multinational organizations, and includes nonmilitary efforts such as domestic civil defence, aid, development assistance, and the work of NGOs.

Examples
Canadas Road to Confederation and the 1867 agreement The history of political reform movements, regional dissent, and secessionism Canada and multilateral security since 1945 Leadership in Canadian history

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THEME C: COMPROMISE AND CONFLICT

2. Population Movements and Settlements Subject
The nature of population movements and settlement patterns

Why?
Canada is not simply a nation of immigrants. Population movements, internally and externally, have played a decisive role in its history for thousands of years. Those external factors that determined the nature and timing of immigration link Canada to transnational and global events. Internal factors, including the natural environment and settlement initiatives, affect community formation, identity, culture, political organization, and patterns of economic activity. Emigration is another historical trend with deep roots and transnational implications. Relationship networks provide practical ways of studying population movements and diaspora communities.

Objectives
The encounters and linkages between peoples and groups on the move, and the exchanges of goods and ideas they engender, offer multiple avenues for research, community engagement, and external partnerships. The same is true of relationships between Canadians and the natural world, including Canada as a littoral country. Projects explore internal migration, community history, forced resettlements, environmental history, and social transition. Objectives include:
1. Deepening knowledge of First Peoples movements and adaptations. This encompasses movements into and within the North American landmass, from ancient times to the present, including contemporary urbanization. 2. Documenting and preserving migration narratives. The Museums can play an enhanced and supporting role in this area, with appropriate partnerships, especially for mid-twentieth century immigrant groups. 3. Exploring the impact of war and conflict on population movements. War-affected refugees, the internally displaced, and postwar resettlement programs (e.g., Canadian and foreign veterans, war brides, and orphans) figure prominently here, with myriad opportunities for multidisciplinary study.

Examples
The evolving, adaptive use of tools and technologies by ancient peoples Assisting community groups to collect and preserve migration narratives Population movements in the transition from war to peace, around 1945 The shift from camp to settlement in the Canadian Arctic

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THEME C: COMPROMISE AND CONFLICT

3. Canada and the World Subject
Canadas place in the world, and the worlds place in Canada

Why?
World events, both historical and contemporary, inform both Museums interpretive mandates, especially in the areas of exhibitions and public programs. Recent consultations reiterated the public expectation that the Museums address foundational topics, where possible adding Canadian perspectives to international stories. In a shrinking, globalized world, such understanding has additional importance, helping Canadians to explore and discuss world affairs that impact their lives. Museum research does the reverse as well, presenting Canada and its contributions to the world.

Objectives
This theme focuses, first, on global history and perspectives, especially those historical contexts that affected Canada and, second, the ways in which Canadian actions or ideas affected the world. It uses national collections and existing expertise to do this, but relies heavily on partners, new media, and borrowed products. This theme balances the presentation of broad narratives in large projects with more specific subjects in smaller ones. There are four objectives:
1. World civilizations. The Museums will continue their historic commitment to explore global stories, adapting these, where required, for Canadian audiences. They will privilege those that have greater contemporary resonance, interpreting past events in more meaningful ways for current audiences. 2. Decisive encounters. The Museums will research selected stories of particular Canadian and global impact. Individual objects, events, or people can form the basis of these, alone or within larger contexts. 3. The international history of Canada. Imperial competition, trade, and globalization are among those global forces shaping Canadian history. The Museums will work with national and international partners here, creating new knowledge and helping to build international communities of interest. 4. Bringing Canadian stories to the world. The Museums will exercise greater influence in sharing Canadian stories and perspectives internationally, through specific projects and partnerships, and improved professional networks.

Examples
Ancient Greece and its influence on the modern world Historic documents of Canada (e.g., international treaties) The global history of the First World War Canada in Former Yugoslavia

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THEME C: COMPROMISE AND CONFLICT

4. Cultural Expression Subject
The value and meanings of cultural expression as intrinsic to human experience, identity, and history

Why?
Cultural expression in arts and craft, design, leisure, and play, for example is fundamental to understanding human experience. It has shaped Canadian identity, and how Canadians are viewed by others. It can unite, by attention to shared experiences or perspectives, or deeply divide, with conflicting symbols, aesthetics, or practices. Study and interpretation of cultural expression has the capacity to encourage emotional or political intelligence, and to understand the subtlety or intractability of difference. By bringing to public attention critical perspectives or previously marginalized voices, the study of cultural expression can enhance Canadians awareness of sensitive issues.

Objectives
Tangible and intangible expressions of culture are among the unique ways that museums can examine and represent historical subjects. Such explorations move history beyond the realm of printed records or static images to embrace a variety of disciplinary forms or intangible evidence. The Canadian Museum of Civilization has unparalleled expertise in areas such as music, Aboriginal culture, and folklore, while the War Museums strengths include art, photography, and oral history. Objectives include:
1. Explore the history of leisure in Canada, including sport and play. This should draw on recent work to explore specific sports or activities, and to reflect social or community perspectives in associated projects. Hockey, lacrosse, and childhood games are obvious subjects, as well as less structured leisure pursuits (e.g., gardening, cultural tourism, and electronic games). 2. Promote collections-based explorations of Canadas cultural history. The existing national collections offer substantial scope for research, with greater attention to public access, collections sharing, and creative study. 3. Develop partnerships in the history of cultural expression. This proceeds logically from recent progress in developing more formalized partnerships with portfolio and non-portfolio agencies. Music, art, multimedia, and storytelling should feature in this effort.

Examples
The centenary of the National Hockey League (NHL) in Canada in 2017 Aboriginal and Northern art and sculpture Musical expression in Canada Programs to document and interpret Canadas military history (e.g., in art)

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Conclusion

The Research Strategy will affect all Museum offerings and core activities. It will guide the subjects and types of material studied, collected, and disseminated, and will act as principal vehicle for cooperation and communication, within and beyond the Museum. The document and its ensuing activities represent a fundamental commitment to long-range research, and will play a preponderant role in research planning. Within the Strategys ten-year timeframe, the Museums expect to play national leadership roles in each of its priority areas. They will produce new knowledge and new perspectives, while stimulating widespread discussion on issues of interest and concern to Canadians. The Research Strategy will improve transparency in project selection, assessment, and reporting. It will enable greater attention to testing, innovation, and responsible risk-taking, while also helping to establish clearer, longer-term objectives for collections development, exhibitions, and other major activities.

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Appendix A

Process and Principal Contributors

Process
A joint team of CMC-CWM researchers, planning officers, and managers produced this Research Strategy. The teams work reflected corporate intentions and directions, an external survey of the research environment, prevailing scholarly and museological trends, and several intensive rounds of internal and external discussions. Starting in the spring of 2012, all research staff members at both Museums were consulted during a series of group meetings led by team members, as well as a full-day meeting of all CMC researchers animated by a professional facilitator. Researchers were asked to provide input on the role and nature of research at both Museums, the strategic direction of research for the next ten years, and the key strategic priorities on which they believed the Museums should focus its energy, resources and skills. Staff members from other divisions and branches of both Museums were also consulted during a separate series of meetings. The purpose of these meetings was to survey research activities outside of the traditional research divisions, to gather views on research from non-researchers, and to seek additional input about the strategic direction of research from those who frequently use or are impacted by research, but who, normally, do not undertake it. From November 2012 to January 2013, the planning team met with scholars, museum professionals, and other invitees in a series of face-to-face discussions in 16 Canadian cities, from St. Johns to Victoria to Iqaluit. Discussions were structured around four broad themes: Canadian Content, Partnerships and Collaborations, Guiding Principles, and Museology. These meetings provided the team with a sense of how the museum and academic communities in Canada think the Museums should approach research in the next ten years. It resulted in numerous suggestions, insights, and specific recommendations. Following the external discussions, researchers at both Museums were once again invited to a series of small-group meetings. Team members briefed colleagues on the results of the cross-Canada discussions, allowed them an opportunity to react to issues that had been raised outside the organization, and encouraged them to offer more specific input.

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Appendix A

Issues and opinions raised in all of the internal and external encounters were central to the recommendations in the Research Strategy. Upon their completion, team members reviewed jointly their field notes, impressions, and principal observations, and combined suggested or discussed items into several thematic groups. After several rounds of review and team discussion, these groupings became the main themes or activity areas suggested in the document. The specific objectives suggested are the result of both the consultations and of the teams sense of existing activities that already meet the Strategys priority areas.

Principal Contributors
At the Canadian War Museum: Director, Research and Exhibitions Historian, Pre-Confederation Historian, Post-1945 At the Canadian Museum of Civilization: Vice-President, Research and Exhibitions Director, Research Coordinators, Strategic Initiatives, Planning, and Reporting Curator, Plains Archaeology Curator, Contemporary Inuit Art Curator, Canadian Music Curator, Pre-Confederation Canada Curator, Quebec Archaeology In addition, travel and logistical support involved heavy demands on colleagues in the directorates of both CWM and CMC, and in the research and exhibitions divisions of both Museums.

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