Centre moving forward on plans for keeping house

It's been years in the making, but it looks like the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre (SICC) may soon have its keeping house.

The centre is in negotiations to purchase the building that currently houses the Unitarian church at 912 Idylwyld Drive North. If the purchase goes through, the centre will relocate from the leased space it currently occupies and begin renovations and expansion to accommodate the planned keeping house and museum.

"Basically, the purpose of the keeping house will be to have storage for sacred and iconic items, which will be repatriated from various institutions, and those will be stored on behalf of First Nations communities," explained SICC president Ralph Morin. "It's to serve the needs of First Nations people out there that are wanting to bring back home items that belong with their cultural groups."

The keeping house will also provide space to store the centre's own art and artifact collection, and will have exhibition space that will be used to showcase items from the collection, "and even the repatriated items from time to time, as approved by the appropriate people or the Elders, as to what we could use to show," Morin said.

The storage and exhibition space will be designed to meet the same types of standards followed by museums in order to protect and preserve the items that come in to the keeping house. A cultural collection workshop space will also be part of the new facility, allowing for restoration work to be done on items in need of repair.

The items in the keeping house will receive the same level of care and conservation as they would at a mainstream museum, but the facility will make it easier for First Nation communities to ensure the cultural and spiritual aspects of the artifacts are respected as well.

"We want to accommodate that need where proper care and proper attention, the ceremonial attention, the ceremonies that need to happen year to year, or whatever's needed for each item that's out there with museums. We want to be able to provide that here, closer to home for these people, for the First Nations people," Morin said. "It'll also provide a space for community members to access and conduct ceremonies on these various sacred items."

While the primary purpose of the keeping house is to act as a repository for First Nation art and artifacts, another role of the facility will be education, helping to provide cross-cultural awareness and information about First Nation languages, culture and art, both historic and current.

An ethnobotanical garden is also part of the plans for the keeping house, Morin said.

"It'll showcase all the different plants First Nations have used, like sweetgrass, sage, and all the other different ceremonial plants that we use in our everyday lives, and other plants that are of importance." The garden will be available for people who want to hold ceremonies, and will also be open to the public, again aiding the keeping house in fulfilling its educational role.

It's current location doesn't provide enough space for the SICC to display its collection, but members of the public can view the art and artifacts through the virtual keeping house set up on the centre's Web site (www.sicc.sk.ca/keepinghouse). Plans are to keep the virtual version up and running, even after the bricks and mortar version is complete, as a way for more people to view the expanded collection.

Having a First Nation run facility that meets museum standards is expected to help in the repatriation process. There are a number of private collectors who have First Nation items and artifacts and want to return them, Morin said. "But we just don't have the museum space or standards to take on those repatriation processes needed to get those items home." Establishment of the keeping house should change all that.

There are many more items out in the world that could be repatriated to First Nations in Saskatchewan than the keeping house will be able to accommodate, so the centre will look to Elders for guidance regarding which items should be brought back. Right now, however, Morin said, the challenge is just identifying what is out there.

Development of a keeping house and museum has been a goal of the SICC since it was mandated to do so by the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Chiefs-in-Assembly in 1991. That mandate was reiterated by the chiefs in 2003.

The SICC is seeking financial support for the keeping house project from both the federal and provincial governments but, Morin said, the project will go ahead whether or not that funding is forthcoming.

"With or without the funding, we are going ahead ... this has been mandated by chiefs in assembly to try to get a building, so with or without it, we still have to find some resources out there to secure a building that will accommodate the need for a keeping house."