There is a major difference between a physical object and its digitized version. However, I really do appreciate the digitized version because the website I used is very detailed. I was able to see the object in 3D and zoom in and out. Overall I really enjoyed exploring the object without having to worry about damaging the object. I looked through various of the links and ended up using the Blackfoot Digital Library. I didn’t want to use The British Museum because I didn’t want to support their website in any way since they are very problematic and have an immense amount of Indigenous cultural heritage items that don’t belong to them in the first place.
The Indigenous cultural object I chose is an amulet called a Piikstaan and known as the “has a nothing face.” It was rather interesting learning about the amulets history and what caught my attention was the fact that these amulets were for children and often contained the infant’s dried umbilical cord. This prompted me to do further research because I wanted to learn more about the symbolization of storing the child’s umbilical cord. Ultimately, I learned that the amulet is given to the child after birth and it brings good fortune and protects from any harm. This reminded me a bit of my culture, because after birth I was given a red bracelet with an evil eye to wear on my left hand to protect me from harm and negative energy. This tradition is passed down in my family and I recently gifted my newborn cousin a red evil eye bracelet.
In our last class, we learned about repatriation and I didn’t know anything about it before our lecture. I think it’s important to know what repatriation is and how museums should be held accountable for (cough cough the British Museum) taking cultural heritage items that don’t belong to them. Most repatriation cases derive from colonial or imperial subjugation. Nonetheless, the cases are approached on a case by case basis and could take up to years for the return of a cultural heritage item. Cultural heritage is a type of property that consists of a shared cultural value belonging to a specific group of people (community).
Repatriation: A form of restorative justice in which institutions/countries not only return art and object but acknowledge their wrongdoings and harm.
Citation: https://mootookakiossin.ca/explore/objects/amulet_MAA_1929/materials and NAGPRA official website
Hi Leni, Thank you so much for sharing these thoughts! Your post grapples with very important issues related to the storage, preservation, and repatriation of Indigenous objects. It’s interesting to think about just *how much* is available online, and yet we quickly learn how that digital experience can reinforce colonial systems of holding onto and sharing Indigenous knowledge.