Display case for “A Remarkable People” on view in the first gallery, (November 2024). © Museum of the Palestinian People.
The Museum of the Palestinian People (MPP) is dedicated to documenting, preserving, and presenting the history, heritage, and traditions of the Palestinian people. The museum’s collection is constantly growing, currently spanning approximately 200 years of history for Palestinians living in exile, under occupation, and in refugee camps around the world. The museum intends to share the history of the Palestinian people as recorded through objects in the collection and written in the wall label text. While docents and volunteers of the museum provide tours that shed light on their individual interpretations of the artworks on display, the configuration of the museum space allows visitors to read the historical context of each object and draw their own conclusions that consider the numerous social, cultural, economic and political factors that define the diversity of the Palestinian community.
It is human nature to look for beauty in a museum space, but this can often mean that visitors overlook all else and seek the most colorful or extravagant objects on display. To experience Palestinian beauty, one must also experience Palestinian loss. To that end, it is encouraged that visitors read the research and text presented with each object, and stand before each artwork for at least a few minutes to look closely and imagine all the hands that it may have passed through in the course of its life. The tatters, loose threads, and worn edges are evidence of life. They are evidence that the object was used, appreciated, and well-loved.
Some questions to consider while exploring the collection: Who made this? Why don’t we know their name anymore? Where are their families today? What did the maker and object bear witness to? How did the object end up in the United States? How many hands did this object pass through, and why? How can Palestinians reclaim these objects outside of physical ownership, and why is this important? What is the difference between intangible and tangible cultural heritage? How can I play a role in protecting the cultural heritage of Palestinians in the United States?
Authored by Wafa Ghnaim
Curator in Charge
December, 2024
Further Reading
- Barakat, Rana (2018) Writing/righting Palestine studies: settler colonialism, Indigenous sovereignty and resisting the ghost(s) of history, Settler Colonial Studies, 8:3, 349-363, DOI: 10.1080/2201473X.2017.1300048 [Download PDF]
- Ghnaim, Wafa. Tatreez in Time: The memory, meaning, and makers of Palestinian embroidery, July 26. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Perspectives: New York, New York. [Available Online]
- Kawar, Widad Kamel and Tania Tamari Nasir. Palestinian Embroidery: Traditional “fallahi” Cross-Stitch. State Museum of Ethnography, 1992. [Download PDF – English] [Download PDF – Arabic]
- Museum of the Palestinian People, Map: Where are Palestinians today? Last updated November 2024. [Download PDF] [Watch Video]
- Masalha, Nur (2023) Palestine; A Four Thousand Year History, Bloomsbury Publishing. [Purchase]
- Taha, Hamdan (2021) Jerusalem’s Palestine Archaeological Museum, Maqdisyya 10 (Spring 2021). [Download PDF – English] [Download PDF – Arabic]
- Saca, Iman and Maha Saca. Embroidering Identities: A Century of Palestinian Clothing. Chicago: Oriental Institute Publications, 2006. [Download PDF]
- Saca, Maha. Center for Palestinian Heritage, Palestinian Traditional Costumes Map. (2003). [Free Download]
- Sheets, Kristine, Embroidered Memories: Postmemorial Nostalgia in Palestinian Tatreez (August 19, 2024). Emotions and Society, 2024. [Download PDF]
Please note that this is a growing list that will be updated periodically. Wall labels draw from a variety of academic and peer-reviewed sources, as well as oral history interviews conducted by the curator, not necessarily (but in small part) shared in this list. If you would like to suggest additional references, please email info@mpp-dc.org.