Issue 36 2023 - Journal - Page 79
Following the decision, staff at National Museums
Scotland will begin planning the complex task of safely
removing the 11-metre pole from its display location and
preparing it for transport to British Columbia.
Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs
and Culture, Angus Robertson said: “I welcome the decision
taken by National Museums Scotland’s Board of Trustees to
return the Ni’isjoohl memorial pole to its place of origin. It follows a deeply moving recent meeting with the Nisga’a delegation when they came to Scotland to explain the huge
importance of the pole to their culture, people and community.
The Ni'isjoohl Memorial Pole was carved from red cedar
in 1855 by artist Oyea Tait and his assistant carver,
Gwanes, in memorial of Ts’aawit, a Nisga'a chief of British
Columbia, Canada. It shows a series of interlocking figures
relating to Ts’aawit's family history through his ancestors,
family crests, and his clan. The pole originally stood in
front of the house of Ts’aawit's relatives in Ank’idaa village
on the Nass River. Today the Nisga’a Memorial Pole is on
display in the Living Lands gallery at the National
Museum of Scotland. In 1929, Marius Barbeau purchased
the pole from its Nisga’a owners on behalf of the Royal
Museum of Scotland, which later became the National
Museum of Scotland. It went on display the following
year. Barbeau was an ethnographer and curator at the
National Museum of Canada from 1911-1949.
“I would like to thank National Museums Scotland’s Board
for their speedy but careful consideration of the request and for
reaching such a positive outcome and also the Nisga’a delegation for helping us to understand the memorial pole’s history
and importance to them. It has been a pleasure to give the required ministerial consent to enable National Museums Scotland to proceed with the transfer of ownership to the Nisga’a
Museum”
Sigidimnak’ Nox Ts'aawit, Dr. Amy Parent, Canada
Research Chair in Indigenous Education and Governance, Tier 2, said: "Our hearts have been moved with the
commitment to return our family’s cultural treasure, which
enables us to create a new story to re-right a colonial wrong
with the honour, dignity and solidarity of the Scottish Peoples
who are walking beside us on our decolonizing journeys."
Below, Sim'oogit Ni'isjoohl (Mr Earl Stephens) and Sigidimnak’
Nox Ts'aawit (Dr Amy Parent) of Nisga'a Nation with the
memorial pole credit Neil Hanna.
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