Canada plays central role in new U.S. museum

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Gerald McMaster, a Siksika (Alberta) member who grew up on the Red Pheasant reserve in Saskatchewan, occupies a senior position at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C., which officially opened its doors on Sept. 21.

Previously, McMaster was the curator-in-charge of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Que. He is also a well-known artist.

Now, as special assistant to the director for mall exhibitions, McMaster has opened the doors for other Canadian Aboriginal people and communities to be a part of this ambitious American project.

McMaster explained how a Saskatchewan boy came to be doing such an important job in such an influential city.

"It certainly began when I was working at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College [now First Nations University] and they were looking for a curator of contemporary art in Ottawa. This was around 1980, 1981. They had a national competition for the position and I was encouraged to reply and I eventually won the position. So I'd been there since 1981 and left in 2000-almost 20 years. I came here in 2000. It was quite by accident I became a curator. My background is as an artist and I always worked with artists; I taught art," he said.

Does he see his success to be an inspiration to other Native people?

"Well, certainly. When you think that Indian people can now become academics and scholars, and not only just in a Western sense of academics and scholarship, but we now have to go back into our own cultures and traditions and histories and understand what the basis of those are," he said. "To look at our philosophical roots and underpinnings and try to understand what is our intellectual tradition. Some people say, 'Oh, you have an intellectual tradition?' Well, we do. I think the exhibitions, which you'll see are largely based on our intellectual traditions and I hope that's what the public will see. So young Indian people now certainly should be encouraged. There's now a growing number of academics that can really help challenge and question and give the questions to the students to go after. What are the great questions we need to ask? One is, of course, what is a Native intellectual tradition? You have to understand it. Where do you find it? What is it? And who's practicing it? In my work as a curator, those are questions I have to ask as well."

Knowing your own culture is just a start, he added.

"You have to, as an Indian scholar, not only know yourself as a Native person in your culture, but you should get outside of it. Learn about the diversity, the plurality of our cultures that exist out there and to understand them. Because sometimes there are relationships that we all have and sometimes there are tremendous differences. So it is trying to understand what that is all about," he said.

McMaster was far from being the only Canadian whose presence was felt during the museum's week-long opening celebrations. The design of the building is unmistakably the work of Alberta Aboriginal architect Douglas Cardinal. He designed the building but parted ways with the museum after a dispute. He refused to attend the opening.

A work by Sto:lo (British Columbia) artist Susan Point is also part of the museum's Canadian content. The two-metre-high cedar sculpture entitled The Beaver and the Mink will be a prominent feature of the museum's main floor, located near the central rotunda.

Floyd Favel from Poundmaker Cree Nation, who counts actor, dancer, choreographer, writer, producer and director among his talents, also played a part in the new museum, providing the voice for the introductory video that welcomes visitors to the museum and tells them what to expect from their experience.

The Canadian Embassy, located just a block or two from the new museum, got into the spirit of the opening, screening Canadian Aboriginal films throughout six days of celebrations. An Aboriginal art display compiled by the Canada Councl was also available for visitors to tour in the embassy.

There are four direction stones that come from Native communities in the Americas placed around the site of the NMAI. The northern stone is from the Northwest Territories. Forty grandfather rocks are placed throughout the grounds-they come from Aylmer, Que. Before the rocks were moved to Washington, a group from the Montagnais Nation held a blessing ceremony to ensure that the rocks would have a safe journey and carry the cultural messages of past generations to future generations.

St. Laurent Metis from Manitoba showed up in large number to celebrate their inclusion in the museum. The St. Laurent fiddlers participated in the procession and performed at the Canadian Embassy. Their way of life is celebrated with an exhibit that includes an old Bombardier snowmobile, the kind they use to cope with northern Manitoba winters.

Exhibits related to the communities of Kahnawake and Sagkeeng cover Canadian First Nations and there's an Inuit exhibit as well that features an Inukshuk made out of television monitors that is eye-catching.

McMaster provided visiting Canadian journalists with a guided tour of the museum just prior to the official opening. He explained the significance of the exhibits. The museum is dedicated to being different from traditional museum exhibits that display Indigenous peoples as quaint relics of the past, he said.

"We're not just passive victims of change. We've survived."

In the past, the authority for deciding how Indigenous peoples would be depicted in museums rested with the museums. Now it rests with Indigenous peoples, he said.

"You'll here a Native voice; you're in a Native place. Indian people will be showing you their world views and we don't all think alike."