The Indigenous Program at MOA was developed by six Indigenous partners: the Musqueam Indian Band, the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, the Haida Gwaii Museum, the U’mista Cultural Society, the Nlaka’pamux Nation, the Coqualeetza Cultural Society, and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. The program provides training opportunities for Indigenous people working in museums or Indigenous people who would like to do this kind of work. Funding for the Indigenous Internship Program is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Our latest series of MOA Stories feature the fascinating research conducted by members of the Fall 2024 cohort during their internship.
KaaGanhlxa – “Home Safe”
By Gid Kuuyas Collison-Robertson
Sii.ngaay ‘laa! Gid Kuuyas han.nuu dii kiiGa ga. Dii xaayda Ga ad dii Kaayahl ‘Laanaas jiina ga. Tao ‘Yuwans haan.uu dii awGa kiiGa ga ad Nang Guulas haan.uu dii xaadGa kiiGa ga.
Good day! My name is Gid Kuuyas Collison-Robertson. I am Haida and I come from the Kaayahl ‘Laanaas people. Gaahlaay, Lonnie Young is my chief. My mother is Tao ‘Yuwans, Nika Collison and my father is Nang Guulas, Danny Robertson. I work as a decolonizer at Saahlinda Naay Saving Things House, also known as the Haida Gwaii Museum, in HlGaagilda (Skidegate). In the fall of 2024 I was at the Museum of Anthropology, building my skills in the Indigenous Internship Program.
I grew up playing in the galleries at Saahlinda Naay, surrounded by many of my Ancestors’ treasures. My mother has worked there my whole life, so I spent a lot of time at that museum. I would pick huckleberries outside, close to Saahlin.nga Naay, a mortuary house where some of our Ancestors are safekept. I was so young, and it seemed normal to me to have our Ancestors and their Belongings at home; I never thought about why they were there or what lead to them being there. It was only as I got older, and began paying more attention to the work my mother was doing in repatriation, that I realized it was a great privilege to have our Ancestors and treasures safe at home—and how much work it takes to make that a reality.
In an ideal world, our Ancestors and their treasures never would have been taken away from Haida Gwaii. However, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, as Haida people faced attempted genocide, vast numbers of ancestral remains and Belongings were stolen by “collectors,” ending up in colonial institutions and private collections worldwide.
As a result of the hard work of Saahlinda Naay and the Haida Repatriation Committee (HRC)—of which I am proud to be a lifelong member—we are getting these parts of ourselves back. Since the 1990s, the Haida Repatriation Committee has taken on the major responsibility of locating and bringing home Haida ancestral remains and treasures from all around the world. My Aunty Lucy Bell, who co-founded the HRC with my mom nearly thirty years ago, said, “We do this work so that our children won’t have to,” although many Haida children have grown up during that time and continue this work, including her daughter Amelia and myself. But they have set the foundation and made it much easier for us to carry on. As of 2024, over 500 Haida Ancestors who were stolen from their resting places on Haida Gwaii have returned back home, now safe and properly at rest again. The number of Ancestors still waiting to return home is currently unknown. But as my mother says, they keep finding us, and then we can bring them home too.
When I began my internship here at MOA, I was not aware that there were still Haida ancestral remains in the building, housed in UBC’s Laboratory of Archaeology (LOA). Midway through my internship I got an email from the Haida Repatriation Committee announcing that these Ancestors were to be repatriated home the following weekend. I felt unsettled that I have spent so much time here but didn’t know that my Ancestors were in the same building as me. I thought all of the Ancestors held there had already returned home. Along with feeling unsettled, though, I felt a large sense of relief. These Ancestors were waiting for us to come get them, and now they could finally return home and rest.
The day of the repatriation, we began by gathering in the Community Lounge at MOA for a welcome and introductions. My heart felt full seeing my Haida family visiting and talking with my friends and colleagues from MOA. Afterwards, we moved outside to the Haida House behind the museum, and began to prepare for the food burning ceremony. Before we do any work regarding our Ancestors, we feed them first: we send food up to them through the fire and sing to them while they feast. We offer foods the Ancestors would be familiar with, along with some special treats. We brought jars of salmon, deer, clams, dried seaweed, fruits and berries, biscuits, chocolate and even popcorn. We arranged the food on cedar planks inside the Haida House while some of the men got a fire going outside. When everything was ready, we carried the food out to the fire pit. We placed the planks on the fire, and sang Haida songs while the Ancestors feasted. We got lucky because the weather stayed nice for us while we were outside, and it was supposed to rain. I think the Ancestors helped us out, and kept the sky dry for us that day.
After the food burning was done, we made our way back into MOA. All the Haidas went down to LOA’s Ancestral Housing Room, where ancestral remains are kept until they are able to be repatriated. The staff were very respectful and gave us space to be alone while we prepared our Ancestors. We did what we needed to do, and even though my heart felt heavy, it felt good at the same time because we were doing the right thing. Our relatives were finally going home to rest.
After we prepared the Ancestors and made sure they were safe in their travel boxes, we went back up to the Community Lounge and shared a meal with the staff from MOA and LOA while we signed documents officiating the repatriation. My cousin Amelia and I signed the papers with our official job title—“ Repatriation Baby”—a nickname we gained from being involved in repatriation since we were babies. We now follow in our mothers’ footsteps and continue this work, following the path they made for us. I consider it a great privilege to carry on this work out of respect for our Ancestors. Without them we wouldn’t be who we are. I am grateful to the staff here at MOA and LOA for upholding their responsibility to help repatriate our Ancestors. Haawa, thank you, to the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, on whose territory our Ancestors were cared for until they were able to come home. Yahguudang – respect.