The Centre for Sustainable Archaeology to provide safe storage for First Nations artifacts

By Colin Graf

LONDON— At the end of a quiet residential street in London’s north end sits a long, low building that is becoming home to more and more First Nations’ historical artifacts from across Ontario.

One of the province’s largest private archaeological companies, Archaeological Services Inc., transferred 2,000 boxes of artifacts to the Centre for Sustainable Archaeology at the Museum of Ontario Archaeology in late May. The artifacts come from more than 700 sites dating from some of Ontario’s earliest occupations through to the 20th century.

The new acquisitions mean the facility, built around 10 years ago, now houses over 7,000 boxes containing millions of artifacts spanning 13,000 years of history.  The centre, formerly a part of Western University, has quietly been acquiring artifacts and is now one of only two fully-equipped repositories in Ontario with the staff to act as professional guardians of the past.

Even with the new materials, the long storage shelves on electrical rollers are only 13 percent full, says executive director Rhonda Bathurst, leaving lots of space for the future storage of days gone by, she says.

The facility is well aware of changing attitudes and relationships between First Nations and archaeologists, and is working to ensure Indigenous voices are heard in the work of the centre, Bathurst says.  About eight years ago, the organization created an advisory committee, with half the membership being First Nations’ members. Bathurst adds that the committee advises on policy and how collections are looked after.

“We need to include First Nations cultural values in looking after those collections because they have not had a say,” she explains.

Carolyn King, a former Chief of the Mississaugas of New Credit, sits on the advisory committee and feels the organization is listening to First Nations’ perspective. One issue the committee has dealt with is what to do if human remains should turn up in the collections.  The committee has said remains should be returned to the First Nation which is closest to the location where they were found and should be interred there by the people of that nation, she says.

King also says the committee has drafted policies on how artifacts should be moved, how they should be kept, and is outlining protocols for research.  She was invited to join the committee after working for her nation for years as a consultation officer, working with municipalities and developers and advocating for thorough archeological work on construction sites.

Any objects coming to the repository for the last 10 years or so have probably already been seen and discussed with First Nations, says Bathurst, because archaeologists in the field have generally made this their practice.

“[Archaeology is starting to] pull in more First Nations and be guided more by where they want things to go,” Bathurst says.  “Archaeology monitors from First Nations are often part of the excavation process today.”

Bathurst notes that a few items from the older collections at the museum have been returned to two communities after the museum staff reached out to them, although there have been no recent requests. Staff are trying to be proactive by letting First Nations know what collections are in their building.  Bathurst explains that repatriation is “a complicated thing,” and the advisory committee is trying to establish a policy around the issue right now.

One of the most important issues in repatriation is where artifacts will go and how they will be shared in the future, Bathurst adds. The London centre could become a “middle ground” location where First Nations’ historical artifacts can be cared for until communities have their own museums or heritage centres.

“[I hope it’s] a place where people can learn what you need to have a facility like this, the sorts of best practices for looking after collections long-term, how you can make them available and accessible,” states  Bathurst.

The centre has a memorandum of understanding dealing with these issues with the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, Bathurst notes.  Several years ago, former Kettle and Stony Point Chief Tom Bressette announced the community was hoping to build a heritage centre on the shore of Lake Huron, with a concept drawing by renowned First Nations architect Douglas Cardinal.

“We hope to fit in to that kind of plan. If you don’t have a place up and ready yet, we can be the place where [the artifacts] can sit until it is ready,” Bathurst says.

Including the First Nations’ perspective in archaeology can even help identify ancient objects, says King, citing an example of how an archaeologist once showed her a small, rounded stone that was found at a site.

“To you it might look like a child’s stone marble, and to him it looked like it could be a musket ball,” remembers King.  “Yet to her, it was clearly a Grandfather Stone, or Spirit Rock, that First Nations people would have in their medicine bags, just like one an Elder once gifted to her.”

The repository building was built with both federal and provincial government funding, and contributions from Western University, says Bathurst. The need for new places to store artifacts in Ontario became clear as the province experienced a “boom” in archaeological work after new provincial regulations demanded an archaeologist be present at most construction excavations. The problem was the Ontario Heritage Act “didn’t say what to do with this stuff,” according to Bathurst. The Centre for Sustainable Archaeology expects to look after artifacts in perpetuity, but since “forever is a long time,” the facility does charge for boxes coming in and being stored, she notes.

In addition to the Museum’s original collections and the newly transferred items, the repository has also inherited another 2,000 or so boxes from the provincial Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport, which has stored many items for years.

The London repository is sharing storage duty for old artifacts with a similar institution at McMaster University in Hamilton, says Bathurst. However, London has a host of digital technology that Bathurst hopes will allow the location to make more of their collections available to a worldwide public.

“We want to be able to share stuff. We’re trying to figure out how to share the volume and the diversity of artifacts that we have.”

Without a lot of physical space in the small museum, Bathurst says that tech such as a digital tour of the collection, with items being scanned and digitally reproduced by 3D scanners, open doors to displaying some items that would sit unseen in boxes otherwise.

Phone apps, a Google Cultural Institute online exhibit, and extending social media presence are all possible parts of the centre’s digital ambitions. Bathurst says she has just received word of funding to develop a phone app for an augmented reality tour of the museum’s grounds, which were the site of an ancient First Nations village.

The facility’s 3D printers will also allow the centre to share exact replicas with other museums or allow visitors to hold the next best thing to the real object.

Bathurst recognizes that the museum part of the facility is in serious need of updating in the way it presents the Indigenous past to the public, and plans are underway for a revamp. Prominent in the planning will be input from First Nations, she adds.

“Much hasn’t changed here in the last couple of decades, and we have a lot of dated stuff,” she admits. “Archaeology has changed, our narratives have changed and it’s time we became more inclusive, more multi-vocal.”

Last year, the museum invited three people to speak to the public during a First Nations pottery exhibit, a potter and archaeologist from the settler community, and a First Nations person who was both a potter and a historian. Listening to the different perspectives was interesting, Bathurst says, and there were many areas of agreement, but the areas where they disagreed “were probably a little more interesting and caught people’s attention a little more.”

“That’s the great thing about getting more voices in here,” she says. “The next generation will be pushing more and expecting this.”