SHI TO SPONSOR LECTURE ON REPATRIATION OF HEADDRESS BY VISITING SCHOLAR
June 17, 2015
Sealaska Heritage will sponsor a free lecture by a French anthropologist and visiting scholar on the repatriation of a British Columbia headdress in 2003.
The lecture by Marie Mauze, Ph.D., will focus on a Kwakwak’awakw headdress that was acquired in 1965 by French poet Andree Breton and repatriated to the U’Mista Culture Centre (Alert Bay). Mauze, an anthropologist with the College de France, was instrumental in its return.
The lecture, titled “The Lives of a Kwakwak’awakw Headdress from its Confiscation by the Canadian Authorities in 1922 until its Repatriation in 2003,” is scheduled at noon, July 1, in SHI’s Living History Center in the Walter Soboleff Building. Attendees are invited to bring their own lunch to the lecture, which will also be videotaped and posted online.
Mauze has worked on the Northwest Coast for more than 30 years, and most of her fieldwork has been among the Kwakwak’awakw of British Columbia. She was accepted into the institute’s Visiting Scholar Program to conduct a new study on Northwest Coast art and material culture. She is doing a comparative study within four Northwest Coast societies on how crests and spirits are represented on ceremonial objects.
Sealaska Heritage sponsors a Visiting Scholar Program for graduate students enrolled into an accredited educational institution or professors engaged in research that advances knowledge of Tlingit, Haida or Tsimshian culture, language, arts, or history. SHI provides visiting scholars with logistical support, access to SHI’s library, archival collections, and ethnographic collections, and the support of SHI staff for the scholar’s research. The program has served researchers from across the world.
Sealaska Heritage Institute was founded in 1980 to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars. Its mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska.
CONTACT: Rosita Worl, SHI president, 907.463.4844
