The RMDC has signed on to the BCMA Repatriation Call to Action
See the logo for the Repatriation Call to Action, featuring artwork by Sarah Jim, demonstrating the RMDC’s commitment to repatriation on the front door of the museum!
The Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre is signing the British Columbia Museums Association's Repatriation Call to Action as part of our commitment to reconciliation and building a right relationship with Indigenous Peoples. Our collection has not included many objects belonging to Indigenous Peoples, nor does it include ancestral remains. However, we are actively engaged in building a relationship with Sinixt matriarch Marilyn James and members of the Sinixt Nation, and part of that relationship may include becoming a repository for their objects at their request.
We are committed to developing a repatriation policy as part of our collections' policy, and we are committed to developing any policies or legal agreements collaboratively with Indigenous groups that reflect our shared goals and puts care and respect for Indigenous objects and stories at the centre. We are very hopeful and proud to sign on to the BC Museums Association's Repatriation Call to Action.
For too long, museums have played a key role in separating Indigenous Peoples from their cultural objects. Instead, we strive to work towards a new relationship with Indigenous Peoples that sees the Rossland Museum & Discovery Centre as a partner in reconciliation, resurgence, and respect.
Read more about the BCMA’s Repatriation Call to Action.
Statement from Smum iem Matriarch Marilyn James, Autonomous Sinixt
As one of the first Indigenous Peoples in Canada to repatriate ancestral remains and artifacts, Autonomous Sinixt are in full support of Rossland Museum taking the next step in their decolonization and reconciliation efforts by committing to the BC Museums Association Repatriation Call to Action. The relationships between Indigenous Peoples and museums are too often a source of ongoing colonialism, conflict and exclusion, continuing past harms. Being “extinct for purposes of the Indian Act”, and not having a federally-recognized Band in Canada, has further disadvantaged Sinixt Peoples in their relationships with museums. While some museums are content to keep living within this ongoing colonial fog and continued disrespect, it is heartening to see the Rossland Museum and Discovery Centre taking responsibility by signing this commitment to right their relationship with Indigenous Peoples. It gives us hope that relationships with museums can move beyond disrespect to one of responsibility.
Museums must take responsibility in creating accessible, unbiased cataloging of artifacts to which Sinixt Peoples have access. Too often our cultural heritage is not accessible to our people or the broader community, most often housed in other Nation’s territories, and/or locked away. Sinixt Peoples belong to this land and so does our heritage. Rossland museum and Discovery Center has entered into relationship with us, working in consultation with Autonomous Sinixt on numerous projects. It is respectful relationships like these, with the Sinixt Peoples who belong to this land, that demonstrate it is possible to move beyond disregarding and dishonouring Sinixt, and to demonstrate respectful working relationships.
It is because RMDC has continued to work in respectful way with Sinixt matriarchs, that the 500- and 300-year-old baskets removed from the Touchstones Museum this summer will now be on loan to the RMDC. These baskets represent the weaving of thousands of years of Sinixt presence in our təmxʷúlaʔxʷ, having been passed down through many generations of Sinixt matriarchs in my family, and will be part of the renewed display at the RMDC. While our heritage has been disrespected in the past by other museums, RMDC has demonstrated through their words and actions, a responsibility to Sinixt matriarchs and a commitment to continue to forge new, more respectful relationships with our Peoples and our history. As a result, that history will stay in the community and be accessible to all. Lim limpt for taking this important action in moving past colonial harms to right relations with Sinixt Peoples.
About the the logo for the Repatriation Call to Action:
The logo for the Repatriation Call to Action was created by Sarah Jim, an emerging artist of mixed ancestry and a member of the W̱ SÁNEĆ nation from the Tseycum village. She holds a BFA from UVIC and conducts environmental restoration on her ancestral territory. Creating place-based artwork of her homelands and waters allows her to educate others about the importance of native plant food systems and coastal medicines in relation to the ecosystem and W̱ SÁNEĆ culture.
Sarah explains the elements used in the logo; “The moon and stars are ubiquitous entities that hold so much meaning for many. A moon in transition symbolizes the act of repatriation; communities are becoming whole again by receiving what truly belongs to them. The surrounding plants represent good medicine for this phase in life and stars are meant to give good wishes and represent ancestors.”
Reproduction and commercial use are prohibited.