From BRITISH COLUMBIA MAGAZINE

CULTURE

Heart & soul

by Brian Payton

The people of the Nass Valley have reclaimed more than 330 precious cultural artifacts, from headdresses to masks, many of which are now on display at Hli Goothl Wilp-Adokshl Nisga’a—the new Nisga’a Museum.

The name given to a new museum in the Nass Valley—Hli Goothl Wilp-Adokshl Nisga’a— means “The Heart of Nisga’a House Crests” and celebrates the importance of Nisga’a tribes and tribal crests. With a design inspired by traditional Nisga’a longhouses, feast dishes, and canoes, the 929-square-metre Nisga’a Museum opened in Laxgalts’ap (Greenville), northwest of Terrace, in the spring of 2011. Its Ancestors’ Collection contains exquisitely carved masks, bentwood boxes, headdresses, soul catchers, and other cultural artifacts acquired from Nisga’a people during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Many Nisga’a possessions were mistaken as idols and destroyed by missionaries who established themselves along the Nass River. Others were given away or sold to private individuals or museum collectors. The treasures in the Ancestors’ Collection were returned to the Nass Valley from museums in Ottawa and Victoria as part of the Nisga’a Final Agreement, a treaty that came into effect on May 11, 2000. Now, for the first time, they are displayed together in their place of origin.

“Hli Goothl Wilp-Adokshl Nisga’a is our gift to each other, our fellow Canadians, and all humanity,” says Mitchell Stevens, president of Nisga’a Lisims Government (NLG).

Read more in the current issue of British Columbia Magazine