Good essay, Linda. So good to hear of cultural objects being repatriated to the Millbrook Cultural & Heritage Centre. Also, that they are being honoured there and may help to create meaningful connections such as those you've described.
Rather disappointing that repatriation laws haven't moved along very much over the past few decades. In the early 1990s, one of the courses in my graduate Art History studies was "Museums and the First Nations" at Carleton U. The issue of museum holdings, proper storage and display, and repatriation was of great concern at that time. There were a lot of issues that were being discussed -- and a lot of it came down to the funding to create and maintain collections in communities. The importance of making repatriation happen seemed quite accepted and desired at that time. I remember a guest speaker from the Smithsonian who showed slides of a group of band members from a West Coast community, coming to the Smithsonian to view masks that were about to be repatriated. She said it was very moving to reunite the masks with the people and that, even though it had been decades since the masks were removed during the Potlatch ban, members of the community had continued to pass on the knowledge of each mask, songs associated with it, to this day. It was right to see the masks go back to be with their people.
Anyhow, it's wonderful to see that the wheels of change are turning here in Mi'kma'ki.
Good essay, Linda. So good to hear of cultural objects being repatriated to the Millbrook Cultural & Heritage Centre. Also, that they are being honoured there and may help to create meaningful connections such as those you've described.
Rather disappointing that repatriation laws haven't moved along very much over the past few decades. In the early 1990s, one of the courses in my graduate Art History studies was "Museums and the First Nations" at Carleton U. The issue of museum holdings, proper storage and display, and repatriation was of great concern at that time. There were a lot of issues that were being discussed -- and a lot of it came down to the funding to create and maintain collections in communities. The importance of making repatriation happen seemed quite accepted and desired at that time. I remember a guest speaker from the Smithsonian who showed slides of a group of band members from a West Coast community, coming to the Smithsonian to view masks that were about to be repatriated. She said it was very moving to reunite the masks with the people and that, even though it had been decades since the masks were removed during the Potlatch ban, members of the community had continued to pass on the knowledge of each mask, songs associated with it, to this day. It was right to see the masks go back to be with their people.
Anyhow, it's wonderful to see that the wheels of change are turning here in Mi'kma'ki.
That's a beautiful story about the masks! Thank you for sharing that.