Bill C-391 (Historical)

Indigenous Human Remains and Cultural Property Repatriation Act

An Act respecting a national strategy for the repatriation of Indigenous human remains and cultural property

This enactment provides for the development and implementation of a national strategy to enable the return of Indigenous human remains and cultural property to the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

[Philippe Méla]

Let me go back a minute, to amendment LIB-1. That amendment was asking that Bill C-391, in clause 2, be amended by replacing lines 6 to 11 on page 1 with the following:

2 in this Act, minister means the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

By doing that, everything in lines 6 to 11 was replaced. In other words, the definition that was there is no longer there. There is no longer a definition, because the amendment withdrew it. The lines that were removed therefore cannot be amended.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Let us resume the session.

With us, we have Guylain Thorne and Kathryn Zedde, from the Department of Canadian Heritage. I notice that the third person we invited is not here.

Thank you for being here today.

We are now continuing with our clause-by-clause review of Bill C-391, an act respecting a national strategy for the repatriation of aboriginal cultural property. When we left off, we were at clause 2 and amendment LIB-1.

If I may, I'll let everyone know that if LIB-1 is adopted, CPC-1 and NDP-1 cannot be moved, as they amend the same lines.

Does anybody want to speak to LIB-1?

Go ahead, Mr. Long.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

First of all, it was in a sort of spirit of collegiality that I said I was happy that the Conservatives see the fact that we are rushing to pass this bill as a problem. I was surrendering given the majority, but, frankly, I thank my colleague very much for pointing this out.

We did receive information yesterday from the Canadian Museum of History. We also received something yesterday, or maybe it was this morning, from the Royal British Columbia Museum, if I'm not mistaken. While I'm talking to you, I'll check it. I received an email at 10:14 a. m.

It was “Written responses to questions on Bill C-391”.

We received it this morning at 10:14 a.m.

Mr. Blaney, I'll give you time to eat. I'm not going to ask you to make comments with carrots in your mouth. They're good, by the way. It's often the same menu.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Thank you.

Pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday, June 6, 2018, we'll now go to Bill C-391, An Act respecting a national strategy for the repatriation of Aboriginal cultural property.

We do have amendments to this bill. We'll be going to clause-by-clause consideration.

Pursuant to Standing Order 75(1), consideration of clause 1, the short title, is postponed.

(On clause 2)

[Aluki Kotierk, President, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.]

Thank you for the invitation to appear before you. I considered speaking in English, but I am now going to speak in Inuktitut, since you have an interpreter. I'm very proud that I'll be able to talk in my language, in Inuktitut, while I'm in Ottawa.

There are two things I'll be talking about in regard to Bill C-391 and respecting Nunavut. Briefly, I will say that when I'm reading this bill, it indicates that artifacts can be used for educational purposes. This is very important, in my view. It is very important to us Inuit that Inuit artifacts be inside Nunavut, which they are not. They are housed somewhere else.

The young people should see their own way now in Canada. There is a history of shame for being indigenous people. When we see up close the intricate stitching of the Inuit and how they put tools together—for example combs and other tools—it reminds us how indigenous Inuit were distinct from other people. They were ingenious. This would be the case in Nunavut.

This is a commendable aspiration, as we have nothing in Nunavut. This plan would be very useful to us if there were to be a museum in Nunavut. At the moment, how are we going to use the repatriated cultural property? My concern is that despite the national strategy, there is no facility, and no appropriate measures to protect this cultural property have been implemented.

As we know, Nunavut became a territory in 1993 as a result of the Nunavut agreement, specifically article 4. It's been 25 years since the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act received royal assent from the Canadian Parliament.

In Nunavut, there is no territorial heritage centre that can house Inuit cultural property. As such, there are more than 140,000 Nunavut artefacts in storage, including here in Ottawa. The Government of Nunavut has been spending millions since 1999 to store them outside of Nunavut. The need for such a facility was included in the Nunavut agreement. Article 33.2.4 states:

There is an urgent need to establish facilities in the Nunavut Settlement Area for the conservation and management of a representative portion of the archaeological record.

In addition, to highlight the need for facilities, the Nunavut agreement established the Inuit Heritage Trust, which is tasked with the safekeeping and safe use of property entrusted to it.

The establishment of a territorial facility has been in the works with the Nunavut government since 2001. In 2006, Nunavut Tunngavik, the Inuit Heritage Trust, and the Nunavut government announced that the territorial facility would be located in Iqaluit. With many competing infrastructure needs, the project was shelved in 2011, and funds that had been budgeted for this were redirected to other projects.

The sense of Inuit is important to us. In 2014, the Inuit Heritage Trust had been working with the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation on the heritage centre project with the intention of bringing home Nunavut Inuit artifacts and building the facility on the Inuit's own lands.

Currently, the creation of the Nunavut heritage project is estimated at a cost of $70 million to $90 million. At our annual general meeting in 2017, Nunavut Tunngavik committed $5 million toward this project, and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association committed the same—$5 million for this new heritage centre to be built inside Nunavut.

Thank you very much for listening to my comments.

[Clément Chartier, President, Métis National Council]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Good afternoon, members of the committee.

I begin this presentation with a statement of whom I am referring to when I use the term “Métis”. That is the historic Métis nation based in western Canada—a distinct people with a distinct history and language, Michif; a national flag that is over 200 years old; a significant population; and a defined geographic homeland. It is the people or nation that took both political and military action to defend its people and territory.

To be clear, I am not referring to the modern-day plethora of the hundreds of thousands of people of mixed indigenous and European ancestry, particularly in eastern Canada, who now claim to be Métis, using that term as an adjective and being of mixed ancestry with potential or tenuous claims to some faraway Indian ancestor. This adjective or mixed-ancestry use of the term “Métis” does not relate to the Métis nation, which is a distinct indigenous people, a polity and full-fledged rights-bearing indigenous people with its own distinctive culture and rights, which are inherent in that fact.

Today I am here to address Bill C-391, a proposed act respecting a national strategy for the repatriation of aboriginal cultural property. It is expected that this proposed act will provide for the development and implementation of a national strategy to enable the return of aboriginal cultural property to indigenous peoples in Canada, something now desperately needed. The sense of urgency that the Métis nation, the Inuit and the first nations peoples are feeling is evidence that indigenous peoples want to reclaim their cultures and heritage. While indigenous cultural revitalization also includes languages and land, cultural property held by others is a fundamental component of cultural renewal and reclamation.

From the birth of the Métis nation, visitors to this land appreciated the beauty of our material culture and collected and kept it as works of art. This was the time when some semblance of fair trade and commerce was taking place, as indigenous peoples and settlers exchanged goods and services. The colonization and oppression that followed this dynamic put the power to own and possess indigenous material and culture in the hands of the newcomers. This included limiting and eradicating food sources, restricting freedom, denying land ownership, and curtailing business, trade and commerce.

The Métis are often touted as the middlemen or women of the fur trade era. We were once a vibrant and successful connection between the first nations and the newcomers. However, this too diminished as the Métis nation was dispossessed of land and forced to disperse. It forced many or most Métis families into abject poverty, hiding and denying their identity for cultural safety. This was coupled with over a century of shaming indigenous peoples through unfair treatment, one-sided historical records, relocation, outlawed spiritual practices, heavy-handed assimilation tactics, and numerous other forms of discrimination.

Having to choose between feeding your children and keeping culturally significant property was no choice at all. Forced relocation meant taking only what you could carry. The kind of infrastructure that allowed those in more stable environments to enjoy cultural practices and make cultural property could not exist under these conditions.

Métis women were essential to the family's economy. Métis women made their best and most beautiful cultural property to be bought and collected by others, while at the same time it was impossible for Métis families to keep and enjoy what they made.

The kind of work available to Métis men included sporadic and difficult labour endeavours at very low wages, and these men were considered more fortunate than others. Providing for a family through harvesting plants and animals was absolutely necessary. It was a laborious and time-consuming endeavour.

We ask ourselves what kind of cultural property might be there if these hardships had not been foisted on indigenous peoples and, in particular, the Métis nation. What kind of effort did it take to covertly maintain our culture and to continue to pass on the cultural arts for which we became so well known? In fact, we were known as the “flower beadwork people”.

We are grateful to those who could, and hold no malice to those who could not in order to survive. Some people with origins elsewhere may think to themselves, “I don't know the songs and dances of my ancestors, and I can't make any of the material culture either, so what's the big deal?” The big deal is that the vast majority of Canadians have a country of origin from which to reclaim any part of their culture, your culture. It wasn't outlawed or suppressed as it has been here in Canada for indigenous peoples. It hasn't suffered from decades of indifference and shaming, which drove many people to the cultural safety of letting their traditions go in order to survive.

When we look at the care and attention given to the cultural property of those who were free to make and collect it, and how long they have had this privilege, we can only imagine what might have been if indigenous peoples—in our case, the Métis nation—had had the same freedom and opportunity. The most precious and beautiful items would have been kept as cherished family heirlooms. They would not have been sold or taken. These items would not be mislabelled or unlabelled regarding who the artisan was or the indigenous nation from which they originate. They would certainly not be in keeping houses other than our own.

As an example of proving the provenance of potential cultural items that may be subject to repatriation, in August I joined an organization of a number of American states' ambassadors, indigenous leaders and others on a tour of the Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian, in Washington, D.C. In one of the displays of the bonnets, a piece caught my eye, a beaded baby bonnet with distinctive Métis beadwork. The caption stated, "Plains Cree (Prairie Cree) baby's cap/hat, circa 1910, Saskatchewan, Canada”. Anybody from the Métis community looking at that knows it's of Métis origin. This is a potential case of having Métis art labelled wrongly, as the suppression of Métis rights and existence was, at that particular period, being visited upon the Métis nation.

Bill C-391 is a good first step for Canada to reconcile these injustices. It will serve to make way for indigenous peoples to reclaim their cultural property and to guide all involved in processes that should ultimately make everyone feel that this is the right course of action. The repatriation of aboriginal cultural property is going to speed up the process of cultural renewal for indigenous peoples. It will reflect a time Canadians should not be proud of, and support a time in which Canadians can take great pride.

There is also a need to ensure that repatriated cultural property has a home or homes to return to. In too many cases, the Métis nation does not have adequate resources to establish museums and/or cultural centres. This is slowly changing. The Manitoba Métis Federation, on behalf of the Métis nation, after a 20-year effort is in the final stages of being able to establish a national Métis museum in Winnipeg, the former site of the Red River Métis provisional government. Other initiatives are also under way.

Finally, in 2020 the Métis nation will be celebrating its 150th anniversary of joining Confederation, which was made possible by the negotiation under president Louis Riel and the passage of the Manitoba Act of 1870. We look forward to all parliamentarians, and in fact all Canadians, celebrating this historic event with us.

[Witness speaks in Haida]

Thank you.

[Steven Blaney, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, CPC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Collison and Mr. Doore for coming out in support of Bill C-391, an act respecting a national strategy for the repatriation of aboriginal cultural property.

My first question is for both of you. Do you have an inventory of the artifacts of your nation throughout the world that are spread through other museums?

Maybe you can begin, Mr. Doore. Do you have an idea of the number of artifacts within your new museum, the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park? You mentioned the Crowfoot artifact and so on.

[Wayne Long, Saint John—Rothesay, Lib.]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses this morning.

Look, while heritage is essential to all peoples, there's no question that indigenous people have had the least control over theirs, so I just want to give a shout-out to MP Casey for Bill C-391. I think it's very meaningful, and it can change the way we look at history, for sure.

My first question is for you, Ms. Collison. You mentioned in your presentation that you want other organizations, groups, countries, what have you, to want to give back indigenous cultural property. How realistic is that? Where do you think we are right now with respect to their wanting to give that back? How much work do we need to do?

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

You also mentioned that Bill C-391 is a process on how to get back aboriginal cultural property. Can you please elaborate on this?

[Nika Collison]

Okay, great.

Yahguudangang has changed Haida history and Canadian history. It has also changed the way some Western museum staff see themselves, their own settler histories, and their museums' histories as we heal together. They also come to accept, learn and practise that our own indigenous laws and protocols must be part of the process and be followed. While museums support our repatriation efforts, it helps their staff address and heal from the shame of colonialism, so the bigger shame then becomes not working towards repatriation.

In 2003, as we prepared our relatives for their journey home from the Field Museum, my cousin Jenny Cross wondered if were repatriating ourselves. We believe in reincarnation, and we know that everything is connected to everything else. I've learned there is a practice in our culture called “putting a string on someone”. For example, during the times of arranged marriages, the family of one young child might endow a great deal to the family of another, effectively “putting a string” on them, ensuring the two would one day move forward in life together.

I like to think that our ancestors put a string on their treasures, on themselves and the museums they were taken to, and on us, binding us to something that transcends the preservation of Haida history, culture and identity, binding two worlds so that we would come together in the future when the time was right, to heal and to redefine our relationships with each other and with the world so that we can move forward together in a respectful and honest manner. In this, you can see that repatriation is not a job but a way of life in which I and my nation are deeply embedded.

In reviewing BillC-391, my understanding is that it is not a repatriation act, but one to establish a process to assist with repatriation. We appreciate that, because then it becomes not overly prescriptive, but we would suggest that the process slow down a bit. Despite there having been consultation, it requires greater engagement and consultation with indigenous nations.

We have been leading the charge on repatriation. We know it best. It requires greater engagement with the Canadian Museums Association, including the newly formed and still-forming reconciliation council. It requires consultation with provincial governments and mainstream museums that hold indigenous collections.

We need to include territories in the wording of the bill, along with provinces, and we need to consider that it must be indigenous self-determination that moves repatriation forward and defines what it means.

The act needs some indemnification for wrongful or incorrect repatriation, as sometimes that could happen because of competing claims or incorrect returns.

As the previous speaker said, funding is critical in moving repatriation forward, for both indigenous nations and mainstream museums. In terms of the research, community consultation, negotiations, coordination, conservation, transport home, building a centre to house these pieces and care for them, capacity-building and longevity, it is so expensive and it is so absolutely necessary and critical to healing our nations and the greater Canadian public's relationship with us.

When we're looking at legitimately sold materials, we need to consider that—

[Nika Collison]

Haw'aa.

[Witness speaks in Haida]

My name is Jisgang. My English name is Nika Collison. I'm the executive director of the Haida Gwaii Museum and co-chair of the Haida Repatriation Committee.

Haw'aa to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

Haw'aa to Mr. Bill Casey for his vision and to all who have done a great amount of work on Bill C-391.

I would also like to take a moment to thank and recognize Mr. Saganash for his work on Bill C-262.

At the second reading of Bill C-391, Mr. Casey stated that he is open to anything that will make the bill better. I appreciate this opportunity to provide insight into Haida repatriation experiences and respond to the bill as it sits right now.

As museum professionals and human beings, we carry the responsibility to effect societal change by mainstreaming Canada's dark history with indigenous peoples while actively working to set things right.

In the indigenous and mainstream museum world, the path toward reconciliation has been shaped by what my Haida Nation calls Yahguudangang, the act of paying respect. The Haida Nation sees this work, more commonly known as repatriation, as based upon mutual respect, co-operation and trust. Yahguudangang has brought a new depth to our nation's healing and our ability to heal with others. It provides opportunity for western museums to become voluntary agents of change rather than the physical evidence of Canada's genocide against first peoples.

Saahlinda Naay, Savings Things House, also known as the Haida Gwaii Museum, is the result of one of the earliest acts of making things right—or reconciliation—in the museum world. It was a vision of both the Haida citizens and Canadian friends residing on our islands that brought this place into being, which opened in 1976. In 2007, we opened the Haida Heritage Centre, which expanded our museum. It was created for our people but also created to share. This is our gift to the world.

Since most of our treasures left Haida Gwaii during the height of colonial regimes, our museum didn't have much of a collection to begin with, but Haida and settler families generously donated Haida heirlooms. The Royal British Columbia Museum, under the lead of then curator Peter McNair, showed support by returning some monumental poles for our museum's opening. This quiet act of repatriation is probably the earliest in Canada. It was not required by law or policy. This act was done because of the humanity this one person brought to our table.

The Haida Gwaii Museum has since grown to include a considerable collection of treasures, mostly gained from private donations, purchases and long-term loans, as opposed to museum repatriation. We also present new works, as we are a living culture. We are not simply an institution. We are a part of the institution that makes up today's Haida society and the greater Canadian society.

In the mid-1990s, the repatriation of ancestral remains became a primary focus of our people. To date, over 500 of our ancestors have been brought home from museums and private individuals from across North America, and one from the U.K. This work has taken over 20 years and well over a million dollars in cash, sweat labour and in-kind donations.

When we visit these museums to bring our ancestors home, we also visit our cultural treasures and other containers of knowledge, such as archives. We bring the diaspora of our people's lives home through imagery, audio recordings, collection notes and the recreation of pieces, and through the physical, emotional and spiritual connections that forever bind us. A few times, family heirlooms have come home from these museums. We are now ready to bring more home.

Around the same time that we began to focus on our ancestors, the 1992 “Task Force Report on Museums and First Peoples” came out. This report has had a very important influence on relationships between indigenous people and mainstream museums, but it's the past four decades of knocking on doors, patience and relationship-building by our people that have been pivotal in having the Haida world and the museum world come together to make things right.

NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of the United States, has played an important role there and, in a roundabout way, for us as well. The first cross-border repatriation of one of our ancestors was spurred by NAGPRA. Legally, the museum was not required to work with us because we are not a federally recognized U.S. tribe, but they wanted to see our relative come home. When we contacted the next couple of U.S. museums, they wanted to repatriate through our Alaskan relatives in order to align their process with NAGPRA, but these ancestors came from Haida Gwaii, and eventually the museums agreed.

England is far behind Canada in repatriation, with many mechanisms—or lack of mechanisms, depending on the situation—to prohibit such work. Despite this, through relationship-building and a lot of other hard work, we were able to bring home an ancestor from the Pitt Rivers Museum in 2010. The British Museum has changed its act to allow for repatriation of human remains, and we will be bringing home an ancestor from there imminently.

What we found in working in Yahguudangang is that you can instil a policy and/or laws around repatriation, but true Yahguudangang, or repatriation and reconciliation, is not fully achieved without respectful, genuine nation-to-nation relationship-building. We want people to want to give our relatives back and to see our treasures come home. We want people to want to make things right, and want to find a way forward together, not because they have to. Repatriation is the most important work I've been involved in around the work of reconciliation. The work is beyond monumental. It costs time and healing, and it involves everyone in our nation and our friends.

I'm worried about running out of time, so just give me a second here.

[Clement Doore, Community Member, Board of Directors, Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park]

My name is Clement Doore. I'm an elder from the Siksika Nation in Alberta. Our presentation is entitled “Repatriation and Reconciliation”.

First I'll give you some background. The Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park is a world-renowned cultural, education and entertainment centre located on Siksika Blackfoot Nation reserve No. 146. The Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park was built for the promotion and preservation of the Siksika Nation people's language, culture and traditions. Blackfoot Crossing, the historic site of the signing of Treaty No. 7, is of national and international historical and archaeological significance. It is a designated national heritage site. The success of the Treaty No. 7 commemoration in 1977 intensified the Siksika Blackfoot Nation's vision of building a unique world-class tourist attraction designed to engage visitors in authentic cultural experiences with the Blackfoot people.

In 2007, a 30-year vision became reality. The Siksika envisioned an indoor and outdoor living museum that would shelter and share their precious artifacts, their heritage landscape, and their Blackfoot culture with Albertans, Canadians, and the world for all time. Since its inception, the philosophy of the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park has been based on five pillars: culture, education, tourism, economic development and socio-political benefits.

The Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park is a testimony to the commitment and preservation of the Siksika Nation to mark the historical site of the signing of Treaty No. 7 and to preserve for all time the culture of the Blackfoot plains indigenous people of Canada.

Here are the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park recommendations.

One is that the government support and provide funding to the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park's implementation of their renewal and repatriation plan. The renewal and repatriation plan is critical to the sustainability and viability of the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park.

Two is that the government provide funding and support to the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park in further repatriation efforts to recover any and all remaining artifacts pertaining to and belonging to Chief Crowfoot.

Three is that the government provide funding and support to the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park's strategy and development of a Siksika Nation repatriation plan to align with a national strategy.

The repatriation of Chief Crowfoot's artifacts from the Royal Albert Museum in Exeter, U.K., is central to the renewal of the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park. The repatriation plan for the revival of Chief Crowfoot's regalia will act as a catalyst for the renewal of the Blackfoot Crossing operation, for more successful financial viability, and to strengthen cultural preservation and long-term sustainability.

The renewal plan has addressed the challenges and mitigates the threats facing the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park. The repatriation plan is an analysis of new programming, facility design, sales and marketing, public relations, human resources strategy and financial strategy.

The Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park began to pursue the path to repatriate Chief Crowfoot's artifacts, which are housed at the Royal Albert Museum in Exeter, U.K. The artifacts on display are Chief Crowfoot's shirt and leggings. Meetings had been ongoing with Government of Alberta officials, and subsequently in March 2015 the repatriation grant was approved.

In July 2015, the Government of Alberta funding was approved and received. In October 2016, the Government of Alberta approved grant funding to hire a consultant to develop a Blackfoot Crossing historical repatriation and renewal plan.

In February 2015, another grant was received to hire a consultant to continue repatriation and communications with the Royal Albert Museum in Exeter, U.K. The repatriation of Chief Crowfoot's artifacts defines the significance of the Treaty No. 7 agreement. The treaty was prominent in developing the relationship between the Indians and the European settlers. The repatriation of Chief Crowfoot's artifacts is one of the major steps towards reconciliation. By means of a holistic repatriation plan, current roadblocks and stalls in negotiations can be effectively mitigated. Through this plan, understanding may be gained by both parties to commit their vastly different beliefs into an agreement that this plan is mutually beneficial.

The second recommendation is that the government provide funding and support to the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park in further repatriation efforts to recover any and all remaining artifacts pertaining to and belonging to Chief Crowfoot. Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park is aware of the following artifacts and items that fall under the auspices of repatriation: one headdress, one deerskin robe, a leather shirt, one pair of leggings, one bow-case and quiver of otter fur, eagle feathers, one bow, four iron-headed arrows, three arrow points of hornstone, four pairs of moccasins, one pair of mittens, three whips, three embroidered bags, one rattle.

The third recommendation is that the government provide funding and support to the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park strategy and development of a Siksika Nation repatriation plan to align with a national strategy. The Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park's next step to develop a holistic repatriation plan is creating a framework built on the following.

The first is in answer to band council resolution number 8-2018. The First Nations Sacred Ceremonial Objects Repatriation Act allows for the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make regulations “respecting the process and procedures to be followed in repatriating a sacred ceremony object” and other matters.

The second is in answer to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta's Bill 22, an act to provide for the repatriation of indigenous peoples' sacred ceremonial objects.

The third is in answer to Bill C-391, an act respecting a national strategy for the repatriation of aboriginal cultural property.

The fourth is in answer to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action 67 to 70.

In closing, when taking into consideration the effects of the treaty, the implementation of the reserve system, the residential school system, and the systematic abuse of first nations people in Canada, the importance of this mission becomes clear. These items are part of the foundations of identity for the Siksika people. When we consider the matters of holistic healing, the usefulness of this process becomes clear. Repatriation will be the cornerstone to reconciliation for all first nations peoples.

Furthermore, I'll reiterate and emphasize the following recommendations from the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park. The first is that the government support and provide funding to the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park's implementation of their renewal and repatriation plan. The second is that the government provide funding to support the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park's strategy and development of a Siksika Nation repatriation plan to align with the national strategy. The third is that the government provide funding to the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park's implementation of calls to action 67 to 70 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, under “Museums and Archives”. References include the Blackfoot Crossing renewal and repatriation planned summary, the Siksika Nation band council resolution, and Chief Crowfoot's photograph.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

I want to welcome everyone to the 125th meeting of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

Today, we'll be continuing our study of Bill C-391, An Act respecting a national strategy for the repatriation of Aboriginal cultural property.

We have two witnesses with us today. One is by video conference, and that is Clement Doore from the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park. We also have a witness by teleconference. We have audio only. Apparently the video was unable to work today. It's just to give you a reminder that we do have one other person; you just cannot see them. That is Nika Collison from the Haida Gwaii Museum.

We'll begin with Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park, please.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

We're back.

It'll take too long to clear the room, but we do have to vote on the budget for the review of Bill C-391, an act respecting a national strategy for the repatriation of aboriginal cultural property. You have all been provided with a copy of it.

[Wayne Long, Saint John—Rothesay, Lib.]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to our presenters this afternoon. It's fascinating. Thank you for speaking on Bill C-391.

Chief Googoo, my first question is to you.

From the Assembly of First Nations, how do you see your involvement in the creation and rollout of the action plan? Can you drill down on that for me, please?