Canadian Heritage Committee on Oct. 18th, 2018

[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.

[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]

Thank you very much for that.

We will now go to Nika Collison from the Haida Gwaii Museum. Would you please start with your presentation?

[Nika Collison, Executive Director and Curator, Co-chair Haida Repatriation Committee, Haida Gwaii Museum]

Haw'aa.

There's quite a sound lag. Is it possible to turn that down on your end?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

We're checking into that right now. We're working on the technical side of things.

[Nika Collison]

Can you hear me?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

We can hear you.

We can begin now.

[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.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

You have four more minutes.

[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—

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Ms. Collison, sorry, it's a little hard because you can't see me.

I'm giving you a heads-up that you're at 10 minutes. Could you try to wrap it up and maybe bring out some of this through questions?

[Nika Collison]

Okay. Sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Also, translation is apparently having a bit of a hard time keeping up with you because of the sound quality. I can hear you well, but could you maybe speak a bit more slowly? I know it seems like a contradiction that I'm asking you to wrap it up and speak more slowly at the same time.

I apologize for that.

[Nika Collison]

Okay. I have three more things.

Again, in slowing it down, we also have to consider that once the national strategy is complete, two years is a very short time to review it. As I've said, it's taken us over 20 years—although we need to speed that up—to bring our ancestors home. It's incredibly expensive. We need to understand that in the history.

We would like you to watch the documentary Stolen Spirits of Haida Gwaii. It will give you great insight into the work that our nation has done to bring home our relatives, and it will give you insight into the great work that needs to happen to bring home our treasures.

We would like to invite you to Haida Gwaii if you ever want to come up to experience it first-hand.

Haw'aa

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Thank you very much.

We'll now begin our question and answer period.

The questions will begin with Ms. Anju Dhillon for seven minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses for being here today and sharing their stories regarding the repatriation.

My first question is for both of you. Can you please tell us how being deprived of aboriginal artifacts has affected you and your community?

[Clement Doore]

At the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park, it's been an ongoing process for us. We have visited different museums in North America and we are repatriating where we can. The agreement with that museum means we are able to do that. We would like to continue doing that. In particular, our building is now up. We do have space there where we could store and display any artifacts that we bring back.

By the way, our building is a metaphor for our culture. It's recognized as a world-class building.

Thank you.

[Nika Collison]

You asked how the removal of our treasures has deprived us. When you go into museums, you see these pieces and you know that they were removed through colonial regimes—most of them, not all of them. Our art represents our identity, our history, our connections to the lands, waters, airways, each other, other beings and the supernatural. This is our form of writing. It's the companion to our Haida language.

When we are able to access even a single piece, the amount of information that comes out is mind-boggling. I could speak for hours about what I learned simply by showing a halibut hook to our elders. It goes far beyond the ability to fish.

The deprivation held back and holds back a lot of knowledge that is out there in the world and a lot of opportunity to heal. Moving forward, this can only strengthen our nation, strengthen our relationship with Canada and make us all stronger.

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

Ms. Collison, you mentioned that Canada is behind England when it comes to the repatriation of cultural artifacts. Could you please tell us what makes England successful in this aspect? What can we do in our national strategy to make it more successful?

[Nika Collison]

Oh, I'm sorry. No, England is behind Canada.

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

Okay.

[Nika Collison]

I would like to point out a great place to look at what is possible through government support. As you may know, the Province of B.C.'s Royal British Columbia Museum put $2 million towards repatriation to get things up and running. What the provincial museum has done with that money has been very progressive and very effective, but it's not enough money.

I believe Lucy Bell is speaking later. What they're doing is a wonderful example of what is possible for greater Canada.

[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]

I don't see the bill as a process. I see it as a support tool to moving repatriation forward. I don't see it as being prescriptive. Rather, I see it as a very important bill that can address and promote and support, not just encourage but make repatriation happen on a human level. The potential for this bill is humanity.

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

You also mentioned that it has taken 25 years, and two years is too short a time. Can you tell us why it has taken 25 years? Were there roadblocks? Were people presenting you with particular difficulties?