A totem pole removed from an Indigenous burial site more than a century ago and kept on display in a Canadian museum has been repatriated to the Nuxalk Nation.
from Bella Coola, British Columbia, to Victoria to reclaim their totem pole from the Royal BC Museum on Monday and bring it back to its rightful home.
"The people who carved their totem poles were so spiritual, they were chosen to be carvers, they asked the tree to give itself up to them before carving it, they had visions on what to put on there," Snow said. "Everything in the Royal BC Museum is sacred because they were created by gifted people and their spirits are still in them."
"It was a very difficult time and we weren't supposed to be doing any work," Snow said. "But we got through it by remembering who we're doing it for and doing it with love. I know my wife is in heaven smiling down and rejoicing with us. " "We will continue conversations regarding other belongings with the Nuxalk Nation as soon as we are able to do so," the museum said, adding that they have repatriation requests from 30 other Indigenous tribes in the province.
"This is the beginning," Trevor Mack, a member of the Tsilhqot'in Nation who attended one of the celebrations as the pole made its journey, told CNN. "Museums all throughout the western world -- whether they be in Victoria, Chicago, New York, London, Paris -- will need to prepare for the stolen objects in their glass cases being called home, to where they belong.
"The legacy and history of residential schools and the trauma that was inflicted on my ancestors and elders that are still alive today has never left us," he added. "To see them still be able to hold on to our traditions and pass it down from generation to generation makes you so proud to be Indigenous."
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