“Shameful” | University of Manitoba apologizes for storing Indigenous remains

(Winnipeg) The University of Manitoba has publicly apologized for the harm it caused to First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities more than a century after it began storing Indigenous human remains.

The university apologized Monday, saying it inappropriately accepted and stored ancestral remains as well as funerary objects and cultural objects without the consent of Indigenous communities.

“For most of our history, this university has had poor relations with First Nations, Inuit and Métis people,” said university president Michael Benarroch after attending a pipe ceremony with members of indigenous communities.

Beginning in the 1890s, Mr. Benarroch acknowledged, the university’s founding members desecrated graves and mishandled remains.

He said the university had violated the fundamental principle of humanity: leaving those buried in peace. “We apologize for these past wrongs,” he said. We are sorry. »

“We recognize that we must change, and we are changing. »

New Council

The university began repatriating the remains four years ago. Members of the anthropology department were grappling with the university’s history and suggested they do something to right its wrongs, said assistant professor Lara Rosenoff Gauvin.

The ministry worked with elders, grandparents and knowledge keepers in late 2020 and formed a Council to determine how to respectfully care for the remains while working to identify them and return them to their home communities.

“A big part of understanding this history, and particularly for heritage-holding institutions, is to really confront the truth about why they own the remains of indigenous peoples’ heritage, and then to actually begin the hard work of determine how to go about correcting the situation,” said Mr.^me Rosenoff Gauvin, who is also co-chair of the Council.

The oldest documentation of human remains at the University of Manitoba dates to the early 1900s, said Dr.^me Rosenoff Gauvin. They were taken to what was then the Manitoba Medical College.

Over the next few years, the university acquired remains and artifacts in a variety of ways. In the 1940s, one person collected remains from farms. Decades later, other discoveries were made during the construction of the Rivière Rouge diversion canal.

Many of the items were salvaged through public works projects, including the construction of the Grand Rapids Power Plant in the 1960s, Ms.^me Rosenoff Gauvin.

Policy at the time required that all remains and artifacts discovered be sent to the university. In most cases, neighboring First Nations and Métis communities were not consulted, reports M^me Rosenoff Gauvin.

The university last acquired remains in the early 1980s, after the provincial government developed a protocol requiring consultation with First Nations and Métis communities when remains were discovered.

The acquisition of remains is not limited to the University of Manitoba. Universities, museums and galleries in Canada and around the world are grappling with their own histories.

“It was an accepted practice, and it just illustrates the depth of racism and how Indigenous people have been objectified and seen as less than human,” said Pahan Pte San Win, a Métis citizen of Rivière Rouge and co-chair of the University of Manitoba Remains and Artifacts Council.

M^me Rosenoff Gauvin said indigenous communities have control over their repatriations and it costs them nothing. The university caters to identified communities, so the onus is not on them to do their own research.

“That’s our mandate. It is the mandate to return and atone.”

She would not disclose how many remains and artifacts the university has.

M^me Pte San Win says witnessing the atrocities endured by indigenous people made her feel pain and anger, but she says hearing the university’s apology and commitment gives her hope.

“I need it and our community needs it to be able to believe that change is possible.” »