Research - Repatriation - Stolen Spirits of Haida Gwaii

Repatriation is when you bring a person back to where they’re from. The term can be used when people bring soldiers back from a war, or when refugees go back home after a war, but in the case of this documentary, the term repatriation refers to the ancestors of the Haida people and bringing them home from various museums around the world.

In the documentary “Stolen spirits of Haida Gwaii” the first nation’s people are repatriating their ancestors from a museum in Chicago. During the documentary, I started to think about the idea of repatriation and how often it’s done. I also thought about how many other First Nation communities repatriate the remains of their ancestors.

I found some information concerning my questions about the topic of repatriation and the Haida Gwaii people.

In the United States, the Smithsonian Institution has a whole office that deals with the repatriation of ancestral remains. It was created in 1991 so that Native American people could bring their ancestors home where they belong. Most of the Aboriginal Remains are in two of the museums in the Smithsonian Institute; the National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of the American Indian.

Also, concerning the Haida people, they have visited many museums to bring home their ancestors. Some include the Royal British Columbia Museum, the British Museum, the Field Museum, the two Smithsonian museums I mentioned earlier and many more.

The Haida People have repatriated the remains of over 400 of their ancestors. They've been working on this project for over 10 years and when all the ancestors are in their rightful home, the Haida people will start to repatriate their ancestor’s treasured artifacts.

From doing this research about repatriation, I now have a better understanding of it and why it’s so important.