Repatriation and the generation of material culture

Abstract

The repatriation of Haida ancestral remains from museums to Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada, was accompanied by the generation of objects that, over time, have developed into a material culture of repatriation. Archaeologists (among others) have tended to approach events of repatriation as processes that affect their ability to research: either negatively through the removal of available data, or positively through improved relationships with source communities. I propose that the material culture of repatriation is worthy of attention in its own right. On Haida Gwaii, objects were created to honour repatriated ancestors, while another parallel group of objects were made to garner financial and moral support for repatriation efforts. The resulting body of material culture provides an entry into local values regarding the living's responsibility to the deceased, as well as the ways in which repatriation is being integrated within the history and collective memory of the Haida Nation. The confluence of formal and informal, enduring and fleeting, material culture presents an opportunity to expand archaeological, anthropological and local understandings of repatriation, ancestral commemoration and collective remembrance in Haida society.

Keywords:

• repatriation
• material culture
• commemoration
• memorialisation
• Haida

Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Overseas Research Scheme, Claredon Bursary and St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford.

Notes

[1]The first overseas repatriation for the Haida involved the return of ancestral remains from the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. The University approved Haidas' request for the repatriation of the human remain in 2009, and a small Haida delegation travelled to the UK in the summer of 2010 to escort their ancestor's remains home to Haida Gwaii.

[2]Yahgudang is visible in the way invitations are delivered, seating arrangements, the quantity and quality of food, the order in which people are invited to speak, as well as the words that are spoken.

[3]An exception to this is the canvas bag at Pitt Rivers Museum which, temporarily, was reconnected with 21 Haida visitors (some of whom had been extremely active in the repatriation efforts) who researched the collections in 2009 for one week (Krmpotich & Peers, 2010).