Bruce Miller, member of the Board of the Museum of Vancouver, gave a forty-five minute talk entitled “Working with Museums and Courts” at the invitation of the Chiefs of Ontario to their Heritage and Burials Policy Forum in Toronto on November 3.
The meetings, with sixty chiefs and leaders in attendance, sought ways to repatriate ancestors held in museums and to protect sacred sites. Miller spoke about the process the Museum underwent to develop a repatriation program. His talk, and the meetings, focused on developing strong and reciprocal relations with museums and engaging First Nations law.
He described examples of repatriation from the Museum, including the return of the Grieving Mother stone carving to the shíshálh First Nation and the repatriation of ancestors to the Stó:lõ First Nation. In addition, he spoke of the failed effort to protect the Nookachamps Rock sacred site near Sedro-Woolley, Washington.
