Canadian Heritage committee  I can only speak for my museum. In fact, one of the two very direct and powerful influences of the task force report on museums in 1992 was the creation of a very powerful effort in our museum to engage in widespread repatriation talks with communities across the country, and we've been doing it ever since.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would think the latter, that it would contextualize it in a meaningful way and would potentially take nothing away from what I see at the moment in the text of the bill or the understanding of its intention from the sponsoring member.

Canadian Heritage committee  At the moment, I do not, nor did I prepare any for this morning's meeting.

Canadian Heritage committee  An aspect of that would be the notion that repatriation exists on a very broad spectrum of the ways in which museums, cultural institutions and others can contribute to reconciliation. It is one way, and an important one, but only one.

Canadian Heritage committee  In our remarks, we've used “aboriginal” in reference to the bill as written, and “indigenous” as a more inclusive term whenever an adjective was required.

Canadian Heritage committee  Indeed.

Canadian Heritage committee  It makes reference to material to be repatriated that is “of interest” to the requester, which limits a request to neither material that is ethnoculturally related to a requester nor materials that are indeed indigenous at all. The bill as written would make Paul Henderson's jersey as much a subject of a possible repatriation request as the ancestral remains of a chief or family member.

Canadian Heritage committee  In my remarks, I suggested a couple of things, such as “associated with” or “attributed to”. The other wording in my remarks would put the onus in part on the requester to demonstrate affinity with the items being requested. There are all kinds of ways in which this becomes quite important in a repatriation discussion, not least because requests for repatriation for the same items or from the same geographical area may originate from multiple first nations.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much. Good morning, Madame Chair. The Museum of History is very appreciative of the opportunity to discuss Bill C-391 and the proposed creation of a national strategy for the repatriation of aboriginal cultural property. As an institution that has been historically at the forefront of discussions on this subject, and on reconciliation with indigenous communities more generally, we are pleased at the invitation to share some notes from our own experiences and recommendations and have had an opportunity to meet with the sponsor of the bill earlier this year to provide, directly, some feedback and advice and I will reiterate that a little further in my remarks.