The Don Bosco Museum of Indigenous Cultures was made accessible for public viewing in 2004-2005 as the most visible arm of the Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Cultures (DBCIC). The Centre is a venture of the religious congregation known as the Salesians of Don Bosco and was spearheaded by Fr. Sebastian Karotemprel in the 1990s. The Don Bosco Museum has featured among the top 10 museums in India and the best 25 museums in Asia for 2016. Its structure, designed by the Delhi based architect Vivek Verma, is considered to be a modern architectural marvel of Shillong due to its unique hexagonal shape, seven-storeys and skywalk that offers a 360 degree view of the city.

The Museum boasts of 21 galleries arranged thematically in a seven-storey building. The agriculture gallery displays the three main techniques of agriculture in the region; plough cultivation, shifting cultivation and wet-rice cultivation. The second gallery, called the alcoves gallery, contains 10 alcoves representing different north eastern tribes and the geographical locations that they reside in. The Museum also contains a costumes and ornaments gallery that displays the traditional attire and jewellery of several tribes, giving us a glimpse of an important aspect of their identity and heritage.
The traditional technology gallery displays traditional craft techniques like pottery making, the brewing of rice beer, basket making, weaving, blacksmithy and goldsmithy, wood carving, leather making and cane making. While the food gallery offers several indigenous dishes of Northeast India. Pork chops and bamboo shoots from Meghalaya, wild rice and fish from Manipur, Jadoh and Tungrymbai of the Khasis and the Wakpura of the Garo are all available at the food gallery.

The remaining galleries include the language gallery, weapons gallery, land and peoples gallery, neighbours gallery, musical instruments gallery and religion and culture gallery.