Museum of Scotland officials agree to provide First Nation delegation with access to other Nisga’a cultural belongings housed at the museum
group of seven Nisga’a delegates marched into its Living Lands gallery wearing ceremonial regalia and singing traditional songs. They were there to visit a totem pole that had been taken from their village in Northwestern British Columbia nearly 100 years ago – and which may be headed back to Nisga’a territory.
“I really do feel the ancestors in there,” added Chief Earl Stephens/Sim’oogit Ni’isjoohl, Ms. Moody’s great-great-grandson, and Dr. Parent’s uncle. Chief Stephens said he laid his hand on the pole, “to tell them that I’m here.” According to Dr. Parent, museum officials agreed on Monday to provide access to other Nisga’a cultural belongings housed at the museum – some of which are in storage; they acknowledged that oral tradition is equivalent to the written word in these repatriation discussions; and they agreed to make immediate changes to how the pole is housed.
The pole was taken from the village of Ank’idaa in Northwestern B.C.’s Naas Valley in 1929 by the Canadian ethnographer Marius Barbeau, while the village’s inhabitants were away gathering food; likely fishing. Imagine returning from a trip to the grocery store, says Dr. Parent, to find the government has sold your house and allowed an anthropologist to take your belongings.
It took about a year to transport the pole, first along the Naas River to Prince Rupert, then east across Canada by train, and finally over to Scotland by ship. It was purchased by what was then the Royal Scottish Museum. While a bill of sale has not been found, Dr. Parent says researchers have located a quote from Mr. Barbeau for $400 to $600, plus an additional $100 for transportation costs.