{"id":113942,"date":"2022-09-01T18:15:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T22:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=113942"},"modified":"2022-09-01T18:15:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T22:15:24","slug":"nisgaa-house-works-to-repatriate-their-stolen-memorial-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/nisgaa-house-works-to-repatriate-their-stolen-memorial-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"Nisga&#8217;a house works to repatriate their stolen memorial pole"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Three delegates from the Nisga\u2019a House Ni\u2019isjoohl went to the National Museum of Scotland on Aug. 22 to start discussing the repatriation of their totem pole that was stolen nearly a century ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1929, Marius Barbeau stole a Nisga\u2019a memorial pole that belonged to the house of Ni\u2019isjoohl. The pole was carved and erected in the 1860s and told the story of warrior Ts\u2019wawit who was killed in a conflict before he could become chief.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The delegates are all members of the house: Sim\u2019oogit Ni\u2019isjoohl (Chief Earl Stephens), Shawna McKay, and Noxs Ts\u2019wawit (Dr. Amy Parent). They are the only living members of their house to have seen the pole.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While the hope is to eventually bring the pole home, Parent said that the museum has agreed to display signs that state where the pole comes from and rightfully belongs until that time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stealing traditional Indigenous belongings was very common during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfu.ca\/brc\/online_exhibits\/masks-2-0\/the-potlatch-ban.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">potlatch ban<\/a> that spanned from 1885 to 1951. Barbeau was a colonial ethnographer who stole multiple totem poles from the same village but was not successful in the transportation, which is a story Parent talked about:<\/span><\/p>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-113942-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/wav\" src=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ColonialStorm.wav?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ColonialStorm.wav\">https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ColonialStorm.wav<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There has been a number of repatriation efforts across Canada, with more than 300 materials being returned to the Nisga\u2019a Nation in September 2010. So far only one totem pole in Canada has been successfully repatriated from a European museum, the Haisla G\u2019psgolox Pole.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reclaiming traditional artifacts is becoming increasingly important to Indigenous communities, encouraging further decolonization. Parent talked about wanting this to happen for the youth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe just want our children to be able to wake up everyday and to not have to search so hard for the stories of who they are with every breath they take.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Repatriating this pole will give the Nisga\u2019a people and the house of Ni\u2019isjoohl the ability to learn more about their history and the philosophies of their ancestors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to the full radio story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three delegates from the Nisga\u2019a House Ni\u2019isjoohl went to the National Museum of Scotland on Aug. 22 to start discussing the repatriation of their totem pole that was stolen nearly a century ago.\u00a0 In 1929, Marius Barbeau stole a Nisga\u2019a memorial pole that belonged to the house of Ni\u2019isjoohl. The pole was carved and erected&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":113949,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16830,3265],"tags":[18336,18340,18334,18339,18335,18338,18341,18337],"radio":[13054],"origine":[280,13049,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113942"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114122,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113942\/revisions\/114122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113942"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=113942"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=113942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}