The Work of Repair: Redress and Repatriation at the Museum of Vancouver opens June 20

Exhibition digs into the institution’s efforts towards decolonization and connection with Indigenous communities

SPONSORED POST BY Museum of Vancouver

(From left) Sierra William, Loretta Jeff-Combs, and Chantu William with three of the 29 qatŝ’ay (coiled root baskets) that were repatriated and are now back in Tŝilhqot’in hands. Photo by Jeremy Williams

Since the 1980s, the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) has been grappling with how to decolonize its work and repair its relationships with Indigenous communities. The Work of Repair: Redress & Repatriation at the Museum of Vancouver highlights three of these specific efforts.

Nexwenen Nataghelʔilh, in partnership with the Tŝilhqot’in National Government, is an exhibition within an exhibition that explores the emotional impact of the repatriation of over 60 ancestral belongings from the MOV collection.

In another section of the gallery, Knowledge Repatriation reintroduces traditional learnings—like harvesting for cedar root basketry—to communities, documented through film clips and objects.

And Hannah Turner’s research project The Work of Repair reunites older belongings in the MOV collection, including a large Kwakwaka’wakw house model by Ellen Neel, with their once-lost stories.

The Work of Repair: Redress & Repatriation at the Museum of Vancouver will be on display starting June 20. Visit the MOV for more details.

Post sponsored by Museum of Vancouver.

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