“By nature, museums reflect the social climate they exist within. Responsible museums bring attention to historic and current paradigms, all the while looking to the future. Effective museums not only have people paying attention, they inspire those people to engage in pursuing and enacting healthy public and political discourse. “
“While not a lifeway known by our Ancestors, today museums are part of Haida culture: a dedication to those that came before us, to our children, to our future, to Haida Gwaii and to the World. In this, we have not only “Haida-ized” our own museum practices we have interrupted those of mainstream institutions. Saahlinda Naay Saving Things House (a.k.a. the Haida Gwaii Museum) is not an institution in and of itself; rather, it is part of the institution that makes up Haida society, Canadian society, and beyond. Working with mainstream museums to repair some of our shared history and redirect common rhetoric is bringing two worlds together and, is in fact, creating a new one.”
Featuring:
- Jisgang Nika Collison, Executive Director, Haida Gwaii Museum at Ḵay ‘Llnagaay
- Gid yahk’ii | Sean Young, Collections Manager
- SGaan Kwahagang | James Young, Collections Assistant
- Aay Aay | Albert Hans, Repatriation Coordinator
Recorded March 25, 2021 as part of the Ontario Museum Association’s Indigenous Collections Symposium, presented online with the support of our partners and funders:
- Canadian Museums Association
- Canadian Museum of History
- The Government of Canada
