Léuli Eshrāghi didn’t intend to become a curator; with an academic background in film, languages, literature, museum studies and art history, Eshrāghi’s original intention was to work as an artist, and they started that career in 2011. But after seeing what they described as more “superficial” exhibitions of Indigenous work from Oceania (a region that is now partially Australia, partially New Zealand), they were inspired to develop a curatorial practice too, so they could shape exhibits that shared Indigenous art and perspectives with more depth and clarity.

Fast forward a decade or so, and they are the curator of Indigenous arts at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), the first such role in the province of Quebec. A member of the Seumanutafa and Tautua clans of the Sāmoan archipelago, Eshrāghi grew up between Samoa, Australia and the archipelago island of Vanuatu, and now leans heavily on their diverse lived and professional experiences in their work at MMFA. 

“[Working] as a translator and interpreter between francophone and anglophone Indigenous communities in Oceania at arts events [and] sporting festivals…influenced how I work as a curator,” they say, noting that these roles instilled in them the importance of understanding your place within the greater whole.

Since starting in this role in 2023, Eshrāghi has contributed to public education through initiatives like Ohtehra’, l’art autochtone aujourd’hui, a free online course spotlighting Indigenous artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, offered by the museum in collaboration with Université du Québec à Montréal. And since June 2024, the museum has offered free entry for local and international Indigenous peoples as a way to help all communities feel seen and, most importantly, welcomed in the space. “We’re working hard to make this a warmer place for local and global Indigenous peoples,” Eshrāghi says, “and for the collection to be one that is dignified in representing and honouring local Indigenous nations.” 

Eshrāghi chatted with 3 about what shapes their curatorial perspective, the importance of cultural diplomacy and what MMFA guests have to look forward to in 2025.   

How does your personal history and lived experience inform your curatorial work?

My grandmothers were artists and matriarchs in their own way. The organization of social relations, particularly around ceremony, feasts and gatherings, funerals, weddings, title ceremonies, it is very much in my lived experience and in the collective memory that I’ve grown up within. Feasting and being together really lend themselves to curatorial work [because] the organization of moments of encounter is one of the best things that we’re privileged to be able to do as curators. That creative impulse is prominent in my family history, and my parents encouraged me and my siblings to be as creative as we wanted to be. 

I have multiple ancestries: I’m Sāmoan. We also have Chinese, German, English and Marshallese [heritage], and my dad’s side is Persian. We always grew up with lots of communities from everywhere around. Always understanding your place within a greater whole has been really clear. 

Can you share how and why the museum is prioritizing cultural diplomacy with Indigenous nations worldwide?

I see our role as the kind of cultural centre that’s not to replace culturally specific centres, but as a place of translation, or to encounter in context and to promote a cosmopolitan worldview. [The museum exhibits] works by people from almost every culture, every continent, different geographies and different time periods. I’m focusing the next few years on increasing the representation of Indigenous artists from North America, because this is our home region. We have a very beautiful collection, but there are a lot of local voices missing. This museum wasone of the very first museums, if not the first, to have an exhibition of Inuit art and to acquire Inuit art. 

We often say that this is a meeting place for all cultures, a collection of Indigenous work for North America that reflects the rich, material, conceptual and cultural plurality of different Indigenous practices, and not necessarily following colonial borders. These borders are very recent, and they have a major effect on everything, but so does the potential for seeing how we’re actually connected, rather than divided. 

The settler understanding of Indigeneity is of nations on this land. Your work takes a wider scope. How do you approach that?

To draw on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the many Indigenous peoples on this planet are protectors of vast and sometimes reduced biodiverse and culturally diverse regions, whose wisdom and teachings are needed now more than ever. Comparative understandings [while] respecting and upholding local Indigenous dignity and self-determination are paramount to working internationally between Indigenous nations and contexts.

Have there been any unexpected challenges with this role? If so, have they deepened your curatorial practice in any way?

Not being able to clone myself is the main [challenge]! But I have many colleagues engaged for the long haul in effecting necessary changes to make the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts a warmer place for local and global Indigenous peoples. We share the same values and goals to deepen representation in the collection, engage new and returning publics and offer timely programming. I am more than ever aware of the power of the spoken and written word, and what contributing to a legacy looks like in this important museum.

What does the museum have in store for 2025?

We’ve been working for the last three years on a new presentation of Inuit art, ᐆᒻᒪᖁᑎᒃ uummaqutik: essence of life. This permanent exhibition invites us to meditate on the rhythms of life that are particular to circumpolar territories…It brings together prints, textiles, glass, paintings and multimedia works. This exhibition has over 60 works spanning from 1949 to today. More than half of those works haven’t been exhibited in the museum before. Additionally, our exhibit ulitsuak | marée montante | rising tide features an outside projection by Glenn Gear, an Inuk artist. This is the first commission for the museum’s outdoor spaces by any Indigenous artist, and we’re proud of that investment directly [into] an artist’s practice. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.