Museums reach out to Aboriginal communities

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While many museums across Saskatchewan have Aboriginal artifacts in their collections, those items aren't always displayed correctly, or with the proper respect required. But thanks to a project being undertaken by the Museums Association of Saskatchewan, that situation should soon be changing.

Through the First Nations and Metis Development and Collections project, the association will be working both to improve the ability of non-Aboriginal museums to handle Aboriginal artifacts, and to support Aboriginal communities to develop museums of their own. Lorne Carrier is community develop manager with the Museums Association of Saskatchewan, and is the staff person responsible for the project. He came to the position a year ago, bringing with him a dozen years of experience working in the Aboriginal cultural community. That experience was great preparation for his current position, giving him first hand knowledge of the challenges that exist in the province's network of museums.

"I was aware, of course, that there was a need in the museum community for resources in the Aboriginal community, for existing museums that are developing First Nations or Metis exhibits or already have exhibits that need updating. Or if existing museums are developing new exhibits, they may need resource people to contact in the First Nations community or Metis community to assist them in that so that their exhibits are not only culturally relevant, but the terminology is up to date, stuff like that, artifacts are identified properly.

"Every small town has a pioneer museum. And way back in the corner somewhere with the African artifacts and the South American artifacts, there's the First Nations or Metis artifacts. And they're not properly identified, they're not properly labeled and they're not properly exhibited. In some cases, there may be, I'm not saying that it's all the cases, but there may be sacred objects mixed in there that these people don't know that they are sacred objects. So we would bring that to their attention, and they are properly either put away, given back to the communities, or in some cases identified as such and taken care of properly by First Nations Elders of Metis Elders, whichever the case may be. So there is a need in the museum community for this kind of endeavor. That is why, primarily, I was hired by the museum association," Carrier said.

Carrier devotes about 40 per cent of his time on the job to working with museums in this capacity. The other 60 per cent is spent running the museum grant program, which distributes Sask. Lotteries funding to all of the province's museums.

In the year that he has been with the association, Carrier has already made inroads in his efforts to form a closer link between museums and the Aboriginal community. He's started a column in the association newsletter, where First Nations and Metis people within the museum and cultural community are invited to share the Aboriginal perspective on issues pertaining to museums, and association members are invited to write in with any questions they have about Aboriginal artifacts.

The approach being taken by the association grew out of Turning the Page, a 1992 paper co-written by the Assembly of First Nations and the Canadian Museum Association, which looked at ways to bring First Nations and museums together across the country. As a result of the paper, the First Peoples and Saskatchewan Museums Committee was formed with that aim.

The association further demonstrated its commitment to building bridges between museums and Aboriginal people when it became the first organization in the country to develop and adopt standards for the care of First Nations and Metis collections.

While helping museums to better deal with their Aboriginal collections is part of what Carrier does, he is also working to help Aboriginal communities develop their own collections, in their own museums.

"There are a number out there right nowthat are in the pocess of doing that," he said, giving Beardy's and Okemasis and that community's involvement in setting up a Treaty 6 interpretive centre at Fort Carleton as an example.

"There's also Marieval Enterprises in Cowessess, Gabriel Dumont Institute in Saskatoon-their virtual museum is going to be online by May 30, so they have a lot of information in there about Metis history and art and stuff like that. Also in the future, the Pasqua First Nation is going to be opening an interpretive centre. And at the very early stages, Moose Jaw is looking at turning that former wild animal park interpretive centre into a First Nations museum or keeping house kind of place. So there's a lot of initiatives in the communities out there, which we can assist. We're positioned as a representative of Saskatchewan museums to assist in these endeavors."

There are a number of supports the association can offer to community's wanting to set up their own museums, or to existing museums wanting to improve their relationship with the Aboriginal community, from providing training, to helping with funding.

"We have a certificate program. We also have a museum advisor here who has been on the job for a lot of years and is very knowledgeable about museums. And there's also myself, who's knowledgeable in the First Nations/Metis area.

"Of course membership comes with a museum grant program, which is ongoing grant funding , operational funding for museums in Saskatchewan. But you have to be a member for one year prior to applying for that. And we also have a First Peoples collections care grant ... for people that want to work with First Nations or Metis communities. They could apply for a grant of up to $2,000 to cover costs.

If they want to bring in an Elder, if they want to have a feast, if they want to do some research in this area, they could apply two times a year for this $2,000 grant. So it's not just a bunch of words on a paper, we back that up with a grant, wth money, with operationalfunding."

Carrier is also working to add to the training already available from the association.

"I'll also be developing a certificate program in First Nations and Metis museums studies, which will complement our existing certificate programs," he said.

The First Peoples and Saskatchewan Museums Committee will act as an advisory committee on the new certificate program, which Carrier hopes to have developed by the fall. The next step will then be to get input from the Aboriginal community. Carrier plans to send the information on the program to organizations such as the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC), the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre, and to tribal councils, "whoever wants to look at that material and comment and suggest on any kind of changes relevant to their communities.

"It's going to be widely distributed for comment, we're not going to work in isolation. Nothing works if you work in isolation, if it doesn't get the nod from, especially the Elders who are going to be consulted on these kinds of things," he said.

"I know it takes a lot of footwork, but it's worth it in the end, to have everyone agree, yes, this is what we want to see, this will help people to understand how to look after our artifacts, if not give them back. Look after them, display them properly, and tell our story properly.

"You know, it's all education. It's just a matter of education, and involvement in the museum community, that is going to get to the final goal of having everybody happy. When you walk into a museum, you're not seeing something that offends you in a cultural manner. You will see something that will make you feel proud that this thing is in a museum, and it's helping to educate people and helping for the overall understanding of each other's cultures. So hopefully, before I die, we'll reach that. I know it's a long road, and those things have been in museums, and it takes time for people to change. But you'e got to start somewhere."