Rising up within the Pacific Northwest, if I wished to see into my historical past, I didn’t go to a museum. Accessing the world of my ancestors meant placing my rain gear on, taking a ship to an previous Haida village web site, and seeing the locations the place my individuals lived and thrived since time immemorial. It meant visiting deserted fishing villages stuffed with previous totem poles melting into the moss and holes the place longhouses was once, there would even be violent, more energizing holes within the floor, making the locations the place totem poles had been reduce down and carted off to museums all around the world. This used to make me extremely upset. I do know when a totem pole is erected the prayers that one prays work to convey the pole alive. It appeared a way more noble destiny for the pole to slowly return to the earth, eaten by moss and weathered by the wind, till it turned a log as soon as extra—slightly than one thing artificially preserved in a museum in an alien context.
This previous spring, I visited the American Museum of Pure Historical past in New York to see the brand new Northwest Coast wing created in session with my Nation, in addition to the Coast Salish, Gitxsan, Haíltzaqv, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nisg̱a’a, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nuxalk, Tlingit, and Tsimshian Nations. From my dad and mom, I knew that the majority museums with Haida items of their collections, a few emails to the best individuals would allow you entry to the again rooms and to collections that aren’t on public show. This, in fact, is what I did.
I received my visiting researcher badge and waited earlier than assembly the sweetest girl who can be displaying me across the collections. When she greeted me, I had the surreal feeling of assembly an previous household good friend for the primary time. Via the years, she had given related excursions to my father, mom, uncles, and aunties. She requested me about my cousin who had simply had a child and he or she was surprisingly caught up on the goings-on of Haida Gwaii.
We entered the climate-controlled rooms holding the Haida assortment. There, we placed on gloves and have been allowed to examine the Haida masks, regalia, carved dishware, toys, and bins at leisure. The woman informed me that gloves are crucial as a result of the museum’s previous follow employed for pest management was to basically chemically bomb our artifacts and to this present day they don’t seem to be protected to be round for an prolonged time. Many establishments employed this methodology, which implies that even when communities do repatriate artifacts, the treasures typically can’t return into use safely. These artifacts have been made for use, however their publicity to harmful chemical compounds implies that one thing that was as soon as purely good now has been made harmful. It additionally implies that the artifacts have completely different storage wants, placing the next value upon Indigenous communities to make sure they’ve sufficient storage capabilities while repatriating their belongings.
With every object we encountered, I had questions and wished to know the story of what I used to be holding, the way it got here to be within the museum, and what it was used for earlier than. There was a darkish masks with bear hair eyebrows, apparently a demise masks, and there was a white doll with abalone eyes and no clarification. We had entry to an internet database with the sphere notes from whichever anthropologist retrieved the merchandise. Nonetheless, more often than not, these have been deeply underwhelming. Generally they have been just one or two-word attributions, typically they have been nonsensical.
Rising up, I would see my father spend hours at his pc, analyzing photos of museum artifacts to show whether or not a misattribution had occurred. This stuff are tough to show, however it’s a type of respect to those artifacts to search out their correct Nation of origin and artist, if attainable.
In the US, repatriation legal guidelines are fairly simple, due to the Native American Graves Safety and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) which was enacted in 1990. NAGPRA makes repatriation standardized. As with all regulation, its implementation is usually a problem. This laws was made to grapple with the stress of museums as locations that protect the previous and the truth that cultural objects belong with the individuals they have been taken from. Issues turn into extra sophisticated with worldwide repatriation, which isn’t regulated, however NAGPRA features as a type of blueprint. Worldwide repatriation does occur, it’s extra sophisticated.
Repatriation shouldn’t be the one method for us to reclaim our previous. Taking our cultural artifacts with out our consent shouldn’t be the total extent of the theft that museums partake in. Chemically bombing our objects and artifacts and making them unsafe to be used is one other type of theft. To misattribute artifacts to completely different Nations is one more theft, a theft of legacy. So guaranteeing good relations with a museum doesn’t at all times imply getting the whole lot again. It could actually imply being answerable for how we’re perceived; guaranteeing that the tales that outsiders inform or are informed about our tradition come from our tradition and are correct. Cultural revitalization seems like the brand new wing within the American Museum of Pure Historical past, a spot the place there are movies of our Elders discussing our house, a spot the place the fantastic thing about our previous is shared alongside depictions of our dwelling and rising tradition.
After exploring the off-display assortment, I visited the brand new public show. On this exhibit, I noticed a video of my relations talking about our artwork and our land. Being homesick, I watched it 3 times. As guests cycled previous, together with a seemingly ceaseless quantity of college teams, I assumed in regards to the entry that every one these younger individuals needed to my tradition that my individuals gave them.
Past the makes use of of the artifacts, the artwork and carving displayed on them tells a narrative, and when museums take heed to and work with Indigenous Nations, these tales are capable of be informed by individuals to whom they’re legible. I considered all the opposite Native youth who will see this exhibit and really feel the pleasure I really feel that our work is being proven with our consent and honored to the utmost extent.
–Haana Edenshaw is a member of the Tsiits Gitanee clan of the Haida Nation. She grew up on Haida Gwaii studying from her Elders and her land. She is a second-year pupil at Deep Springs Faculty in California. She has been an environmental justice and Indigenous rights activist for a lot of her life and is engaged on cultural revitalization and language studying. She is one in all 15 youth suing the Canadian authorities for his or her contributions to the local weather disaster. She can also be a board member of the Vancouver-based charity Justice For Women. Haana is a 2023-2024 Cultural Survival Author in Residence.
