Repatriation

Hello everyone! I'm Owen, the Conservator for the Peterborough Museum and Archives (PMA). It's my job to take care of the objects in our collection to make sure we can share them safely and in their best light. Collections care can mean cleaning something before it goes on display or monitoring our building systems to make sure they’re working properly. It can also mean flattening a curled map so researchers can use it or building support mounts for our more fragile objects.

In 2020, I spent much of my time working out the details of repatriating sacred and ceremonial objects from our Indigenous collection. Repatriation means we send objects home, back to where they came from, to the descendants of those who made them. We repatriated three objects with cultural significance. Two to the Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw Nations (GNN) and one to the Haida Nation, both in British Columbia. Collections care can also sometimes mean acknowledging that a museum isn’t the right home for an object in its collection.

A ceremonial head ring and a feasting bowl were deaccessioned in 2018 and have been repatriated to the GNN. We have been entrusted with the care of these until the GNN is ready to receive them. The third object, a model totem pole, is now at home with the Haida Gwaii. The totem pole was never formally a part of the PMA's collection, and therefore did not need to be deaccessioned. This object's attribution as being of cultural significance was provided by Haida artists and scholars.

My training is in cultural heritage conservation which is the chemical deterioration of materials and ways to diminish or recover that loss. When I look at an object, I see the material it is made of: wood, metal, paint, etc. I also acknowledge the condition of those materials. If paint is flaking, I flatten it and glue it down. If wood is splitting, I minimize its exposure to humidity cycles. However, when working with sacred and ceremonial objects, one must recognize that they are more than just material - they are enspirited. Repatriation, and reconciliation through repatriation, is also acknowledging that the sum of my experience and training as a settler Conservator may not address the needs of these sacred and ceremonial objects. I simply am not equipped to care for the spirits of the ancestors. This is why it is one of the important reasons that conservators work closely with Indigenous communities.

The images of these objects have been recreated by our Curator, Kim Reid, through illustration. The cultural and artistic practices of feasting, ceremony, and carving were outlawed under the Indian Act of 1876. With it enacted, the government began confiscating objects like these to eliminate traditional Indigenous ways of life. Many of those stolen objects then headed east to be displayed in private homes or placed on museum shelves, that is, if they weren’t destroyed. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada emphasizes in its final report that repatriation of ceremonial objects - under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) - is of particular relevance to museums and archives in Canada.

The collection of the PMA started in the 1890s, and documentation of collection methods then weren’t at the standard they are today. Until recently, we didn't know where these objects came from specifically, and we still don't know who acquired them or how. As a museum that holds Indigenous material in its collection, we have a responsibility to try to undo the injustice of the past and to take steps to remove the barriers between Indigenous people and their confiscated cultural material. A big thank you - chi miigwetch - is owed to the many colleagues, volunteers, specialists and community representatives who have aided, and continue to aid, in this process.