Delegates from the Nisga’a First Nation will travel to Scotland next week to discuss the possibility of recovering a totem pole said to have been stolen from them nearly a century ago.
Seven members of this British Columbia community, including Chief Earl Stephens, are due to meet curators and politicians at the National Museum of Scotland on Monday.
“This is the first time in living memory that members of the House of Ni’isjoohl will be able to see this memorial pole with their own eyes,” Stephens said in a statement. This visit will be deeply moving for all of us. »
The Nisga’a Totem Pole, also known as the Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole, was hand carved in the 1860s. It depicts the story of Ts’wawit, a warrior who was to become chief of the tribe before his death in a conflict with a neighboring nation.
The First Nation maintains that this totem was taken from them in 1929 without their consent by Quebec ethnographer Marius Barbeau during hunting and harvesting season.
The totem would then have been sold to the Scottish Museum.
Amy Parent, a First Nation member and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Education and Governance at Simon Fraser University, says returning this artifact will help restore an element of cultural identity of the nation.
“I want our children to wake up every day without having to search for a story about who we are,” she says.
She says delegates want to discuss “their true intentions” with the Scottish authorities. They want to request the transfer of the title deeds of the totem to the First Nation during their visit.
“So far they have been positive with us. They want to ensure that they will be culturally respectful by welcoming our delegation, said Ms. Parent. We try to be moderately optimistic about the outcome of our discussions. »
Ms. Parent says that this is not the first time that representatives of the Nisga’a nation have traveled to Europe to identify and claim artifacts belonging to it. A group had visited the Scottish Museum in 2018, but the totem was then too fragile to be moved.
However, she later discovered that the artifact had been moved during recent renovations at the museum.
“Canadian experts determined that the mast was in good enough condition to be moved. They did not hesitate to say that he would support his trip back to Canada and to our nation. »
Their analysis convinced the nation to return to Scotland in hopes of reclaiming the totem.
“They can help us rewrite history through this act of reparation,” adds Ms. Parent. This is an opportunity for the Government of Scotland to demonstrate to the world that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is more than symbolic. It is a legal tool that can transform the lives of all Aboriginal people. The world is watching us. »
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted in 2007. It aims to establish minimum standards for the survival and well-being of indigenous peoples worldwide.
National Museums Scotland, the agency that oversees the Scottish National Museum, said it “is open to dialogue and fostering collaboration with communities to which objects in our collections are of particular significance”.
“We are ready to welcome a delegation from the Nisga’a Nation to the National Museum of Scotland to view the memorial pole, share information about it and learn about the procedures for requesting the transfer of an object. . »
Parent hopes the museum and the Scottish government will also agree to foot the bill for the object’s return to British Columbia.
“This burden should not fall on our shoulders,” she says.
If the pole is repatriated, it would be erected inside the Nisga’a Museum which houses over 300 other cultural relics.