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We Are Coming Home Repatriation and the Restoration of Blackfoot Cultural Confidence

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In 1990, Gerald Conaty was hired as senior curator of ethnology at the Glenbow Museum, with the particular mandate of improving the museum’s relationship with Aboriginal communities. That same year, the Glenbow had taken its first tentative steps toward repatriation by returning sacred objects to First Nations’ peoples. These efforts drew harsh criticism from members of the provincial government. Was it not the museum’s primary legal, ethical, and fiduciary responsibility to ensure the physical preservation of its collections? Would the return of a sacred bundle to ceremonial use not alter and diminish its historical worth and its value to the larger society? Undaunted by such criticism, Conaty oversaw the return of more than fifty medicine bundles to Blackfoot and Cree communities between the years of 1990 and 2000, at which time the First Nations Sacred Ceremonial Objects Repatriation Act (FNSCORA)—still the only repatriation legislation in Canada—was passed. “Repatriation,” he wrote, “is a vital component in the creation of an equitable, diverse, and respectful society.”

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Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

304 pages

Publisher

Canada : AU Press., 2015

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781771990172.01

Classification

304 pages

Content Type

text

Media Type

computer

Carrier Type

online resource

Edition

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Subject(s)

History, Indigenous Studies
Museum Studies, Western History
Anthropology, Canadian History, Cultural Studies

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

Gerald T. Conaty

Other Information

Cataloger

Arin

Source

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