One major project of reconciliation and decolonization across the globe is the repatriation of Indigenous cultural artifacts. In Canada, returning stolen, bought, or transferred material culture and heritage has been important to cultural revitalization efforts since the 1970s. In recent years, Indigenous cultural and political resurgence has intensified demands for community access to heritage artifacts. For instance, a Nisga鈥檃 delegation to the National Museum of Scotland in August 2022 demanded the return of a totem pole taken in 1929. Museum responses to community demands have varied, from an enduring sense of possessive colonial entitlement to global heritage, to an openness to revisioning their relationships with Indigenous communities through repatriation.
Our current project aims to shift the paradigm of repatriation, the simple returning of objects, to rematriation, a complex reintegration of cultural knowledge through community-颅based practices with the Witsuwit鈥檈n on their territories in Northwestern British Columbia. Specifically, we will focus on rematriation of knowledge around the K毛git pole to the Witsuwit鈥檈n, supporting the revitalization of artistic practices and renewal of intergenerational engagement in the arts. The K毛git pole is significant as the largest and oldest surviving Witsuwit鈥檈n pole, carved prior to the influx of white settlers to their lands in the late颅nineteenth century. Emblazoned with the story of C鈥檌dimsggin鈥檌s, the pole represents the connection of the Likhsilyu (Small Frog Clan) to the spirit of the land.
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In October 2024, a delegation of Witsuwit鈥檈n hereditary chiefs, elders, artists, and youth embarked on an emotional and historic journey to Paris, France. Their goal was to reconnect with a significant piece of their cultural heritage鈥攖he K鈥櫭玤it totem pole belonging to C鈥檌dimsggin鈥櫭痵, housed at the Quai Branly Museum.
This journey, deeply rooted in cultural revitalization and healing, was an opportunity to see and honour the totem pole that was taken from Witsuwit鈥檈n lands in 1938. For many of the delegation members, this trip was more than just a visit; it was a powerful act of reclamation and a step towards strengthening their connection to their ancestors and cultural identity.
Delegation Members:
- Hagwilnekhlh Ron Mitchell, Witsuwit鈥檈n Head Chief of Cinegh Lhay Yikh of Likhsilyu and Witsuwit鈥檈n Language Instructor.
- Dz茂ggot Ron Austin, Witsuwit鈥檈n Chief in Cinegh Lhay Yikh of Likhsilyu and Witsuwit鈥檈n Artist.
- 鈥橧lhdesinon Birdy Markert, Witsuwit鈥檈n Matriarch in Cinegh Lhay Yikh of Likhsilyu and District Principal of Indigenous Education for School District 54.
- We鈥檈s Tes Sandra Martin Harris, Witsuwit鈥檈n Matriarch in Cinegh Lhay Yikh of Likhsilyu and Indigenous Focusing-Orientated Therapy (IFOT) and Reiki Practitioner.
- Jean Matheson, Witsuwit鈥檈n Member of C鈥檌negh Lhay Yikh in Likhsilyu and Witsuwit鈥檈n Language Learner.
- Diana Wilson, Witsuwit鈥檈n Member of Cas Yikh in Gidimt鈥檈n and Witsuwit鈥檈n Language Learner.
- Toni Michell, Witsuwit鈥檈n Member of C鈥檌negh Lhay Yikh in Likhsilyu and Witsuwit鈥檈n Language Learner.
- Drew Harris, Witsuwit鈥檈n Member of C鈥檌negh Lhay Yikh in Likhsilyu.
- Helen Harris, Witsuwit鈥檈n Member of Ts毛 Kal Kiyikh in Likhsilyu, Community Language & Culture Department Coordinator for Kyah Wiget Education Society, and Witsuwit鈥檈n Language Learner.
- Tyler McCreary, PhD, Associate Professor in Department of Geography at Florida State University.
- Joanne Connauton, MA, Member of Wahnapitae First Nation and PhD candidate in Department of Geography at Florida State University.
- M茅lanie H. Morin, Bulkley Valley Museum Staff Researcher.
Project Funders:
- Wetzin'kwa Community Forest
- BC NEIHR (BC Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research)
- SSHRC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada)
- BV Community Foundation
- School District #54 - Bulkley Valley
- Kyah Wiget Education Society
- Bulkley Valley Museum
- 91亚色
- Florida State University
- Native American and Indigenous Studies Center (NAIS - FSU)
Partners:
- 91亚色
- Florida State University
- Kyah Wiget Education Society
- School District #54 - Bulkley Valley
- Bulkley Valley Museum
Music/Drumming: Members of Likhsilyu Delegation - Dz茂ggot Ron Austin, Toni Michell, Helen Harris, Drew Harris, Jean Matheson, Diana Wilson
Film Credits:
Historical Photo: Kurt Seligmann - Mus茅e du Quai Branly
Map of Witsuwit'en territory - School District #54
Camera: Helen Harris, Drew Harris, Facundo Gastiazoro
Direction and Editing: Facundo Gastiazoro
Production: Joanne Connauton & Tyler McCreary
Research Support: M茅lanie聽H. Morin
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Indigenous artifacts
The project will generate curricular resources and broader community awareness of cultural dispossession and the global trade in Indigenous artifacts and the current need for not simply repatriation of knowledges and artifacts but the further development of approaches to rematriation which pay attention to the needs of the local community.
The Kegit Pole
This project presents a unique opportunity to engage in decolonial research and rematriation activities that is both original and significant to the Witsuwit鈥檈n, Indigenous peoples more generally, and academic researchers across a range of disciplines. The K毛git pole itself is singularly important to the Witsuwit鈥檈n community. It is the oldest Witsuwit鈥檈n pole in existence, and the only surviving pole from the historic Hagwilget village site where the community gathered in the summers to conduct balhats (traditional governance feasts) and fishing. It is also the largest Witsuwit鈥檈n pole on record. In the period, Catholic missionaries sought to suppress traditional forms of Witsuwit鈥檈n cultural expression, coercing community members to assimilate to white settler norms and rupturing the transmission of intergenerational knowledge. As a result, there are few practicing Witsuwit鈥檈n carvers today and limited knowledge of distinct Witsuwit鈥檈n carving traditions. Studying the K毛git pole provides a unique opportunity to rejuvenate these distinct Witsuwit鈥檈n carving traditions.
Research
Our collaboration will bring together a new team of researchers to conduct a five stage, multi-颅sited project, bridging museum archival research and community based research in the Witsuwit鈥檈n villages of Hagwilget and Witset, as well as the settlements of Hazelton and Smithers. The archival research will focus on the current site of the Kegit pole, the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, France.
Critical Literature
A longstanding critical literature has exposed the colonial impetus underpinning the drive to collect Indigenous artifacts and present them to Western audiences (Price 2001; Mawani 2004; Henare 2005; Diaz-Andreu 2007; Hamilton 2010). Of course, the relocation of objects such as totem poles displaced them from Indigenous cultural contexts, resituating them within Western cultural institutions (Jonaitis 1989; Morphy 2019). Scholars have linked Western collections to the rise of capitalist practices of cultural consumption (Belk 1995; Root 1996); however, collectors were also often inspired by critiques of the rationalist Western mentalities underpinning capitalism and imperialism and by a desire to reconnect to subconscious drives and more-than-human nature through the talismanic qualities of Indigenous artifacts such as totems (Cowling 1978; Jonaitis 1981; Jordan 2008; Power 2008; Conley 2013a, 2013b, 2017; Dickson 2014). For instance, French Surrealist collectors, such as Andre Breton, were inspired by a belief that 鈥減rimitive鈥 art objects were 鈥渆ndowed with an expressive power conducive to arousing the emotions which allow us access to knowledge of a different sort鈥 (Mauz茅 2006, 17). These anti-rationalist politics, while based in a radical critique of twentieth-century Western culture, nonetheless remained self-involved and disconnected from the struggles of colonized peoples and reproduced the colonial dynamic whereby Indigenous artifacts were appropriated to serve the aims of Western cultural projects (Antle 2001; Townsend-Gault 2013; Tythacott 2014; Antle 2015; Antle and Conley 2015).
