Members of the Xa’is’la (Haisla) First Nation in British Columbia traveled to Sweden on March 14 to celebrate the tribe’s renewed ownership of a 134-year-old totem pole that was taken from them in 1929, the BBC reported. First erected in 1876, the mortuary totem was created to honor the forest spirit Tsoda, who is believed to have saved the Haisla people from a smallpox epidemic. The totem pole, made from red cedar wood, has been a central exhibit in the Native American display at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, Sweden for the past 77 years. The Haisla peoples are currently building a cultural center in Kitamaat, British Columbia that will house the totem for public display. In a recent phone interview with Gerald Amos, Chair of the Na Na Kila Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the Haisla First Nation, Amos said that while he cannot speak for all of the Haisla First Nation, he personally does not harbor any feelings of resentment towards the museum or Sweden. "From this point on we can see this as a positive action; we can build relations with other indigenous peoples, take advantage of the cultural center, and we can rest easy with our totem pole returned home," Amos said. The totem is expected to arrive in Canada by mid-June.
Related articles:
Cultural Survival Quarterly: Cultural Property as Global Commodities–The Case of Mijikenda Memorial Statues
Weekly Indigenous News: UNITED STATES: Erie County museum considers repatriation of artifacts
