Last week, local history was made in Rossland, B.C. when representatives of the Autonomous Sinixt signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Rossland Museum and Discovery Centre. Attendance at the signing ceremony was limited due to COVID protocols but it was recorded for later viewing.
The MOU puts the museum’s commitment to protect and preserve cultural assets and share traditions from the Autonomous Sinixt perspective into writing. The museum will be a “Designated Repository” for the care, storage, and display of Sinixt artefacts, contemporary objects such as works of art, and other materials.
At the signing ceremony, Sinixt matriarchs Marilyn James and Taress Alexis offered the Rossland Museum two ancient Sinixt baskets on long-term loan. Taress Alexis stated that the baskets “represent the weaving of thousands of years of Sinixt presence in our təmxʷúlaʔxʷ, having been passed down to me through many generations of Sinixt matriarchs in my family.”
The Rossland Museum’s work to build and maintain a right relationship with the people of the land where they operate is part of a nationwide movement and this agreement is Rossland Museum’s next step in their decolonization and reconciliation efforts, as laid out in the BC Museums Association Repatriation Call to Action.
During the ceremony, Sinixt elder and Matriarch, Marilyn James (pictured) commented that “relationships between Indigenous Peoples and museums are too often a source of ongoing colonialism, conflict and exclusion, continuing past harms.
She added that it was “heartening to see the Rossland Museum taking this step and it gives us hope that relationships with museums can move beyond disrespect to one of responsibility.”
Catherine Fisher, blogger
Photograph of Marilyn James by Louis Bockner
