Following the historic and emotional day of the grand return of the Nisga’a nation memorial totem, preparations are now underway to erect it inside the Nisga’a Museum.
“There was a lot of work to prepare to have that many visitors to the museum and we are delighted it went so smoothly. There is still lots of work to be done,” said Theresa Schober, Nisga’a Museum’s director and curator.
On Saturday, crews were hard at work removing the cradle that protected the memorial totem pole while in transit. They will also be installing the new mounting system meant to hold the memorial totem pole in place inside the museum. The process will take several days.
The memorial totem pole was taken without the community’s consent nearly a century ago.
Sigidimnaḵ’ Nox̱s Ts’aawit (Amy Parent), Simon Fraser University Indigenous Governance and Education’s Canada Research Chair, said with the pole returned to its rightful home, attention is now being turned to other Indigenous artifacts.
“There are so many more of our cultural belongings and cultural treasures that are out there. We would really appreciate having museums contact us instead of us contacting them,” Parent said. “But it isn’t just us. It is Indigenous peoples around the world that are still needing to reclaim and go through these fairly colonial processes to have these belongings returned to them.”
Parent sees the return of the pole as a major step forward in reconciliation and relations.
“(This) has really shown us what reconciliation can really mean,” she told Global News. “(I am) feeling a deep sense of relief and peace in my heart for all the good relations that helped us get here. With each success, and the huge precedent that we set with our rematriation, it opens the doors for other Indigenous Peoples and we are really encouraging museums to do the right thing.”