University student calls for more Indigenous perspectives in museum exhibits

By Colin Graf

LONDON— A university student has turned a critical eye on a small museum in London, Ont., by creating an alternative commentary on the on-going conflicts between First Nations and archaeologists.

While working last summer as an educational assistant and tour guide at the Museum of Ontario Archaeology, which focuses on First Nations’ history and prehistory, Alyssa Logie began “feeling a little uncomfortable” with the lack of First Nations’ perspective in the exhibits presented.  She decided to do something about it.

The result of her work is called, “Contested Histories,” a series of six text panels presented next to pre-existing exhibits at the museum that aim to explore how relations between archaeological perspectives and Indigenous perspectives have evolved.

When Logie set out to tell her alternate story, she realized she had a lot of reading to do, as her degree at Western University was in Media Studies, not archaeology. Relying heavily on writing by Western University professor Michelle Hamilton, Logie got the support of the Museum administration for her work.

“The museum knows what is represented here is outdated and needs to be changed.  I made it a project for myself to come up with a way to address that issue in a way that would be very cost-effective,” she shares.

Logie’s texts look at the early days of archaeology in Ontario, beginning in the 1800s, when farmers and construction workers started digging up First Nations artifacts,  and private collectors started to seek out new items for their “curiosity cabinets,” according to Logie’s writing. First Nations had no say in the disposition of artifacts at this time, she adds.

As archaeology entered an age of professionalism, found artifacts were examined more carefully in their locations and contexts, but still First Nations were not consulted about the work, she writes.

A turning point in Canada was in 1988 when various Indigenous communities boycotted an exhibit at Calgary’s Glenbow Museum. The Lubicon band claimed the exhibition’s sponsor, Shell Oil, had been responsible for damaging their lifestyle, Logie’s exhibit says.  After this controversy, Logie says museums were held more accountable for ensuring Indigenous voices were included in exhibits.

Logie’s project is “a breath of fresh air” for the museum, says executive director Rhonda Bathurst, adding she fully agrees that there are shortcomings in their galleries. The museum is beginning the process of trying to update their presentations, and Contested Histories is “a bit of a hint where we want to go” she says.

“I’ve kept it (the Contested Histories text) up because I like the challenge, I don’t see museums as passive places,” Bathurst says. “They should be places where you should be engaged and challenged.”

Logie is “a good reflection of where young people are coming from today. This is what people are starting to expect from archaeology and from museums.”

When the museum’s galleries are revamped, First Nations will be “fully involved,” Bathurst says.

Growing up in the town of Hagersville, near Six Nations territory, Logie says her acquaintance with First Nations’ people gave her a “personal connection to wanting to make some kind of change,” in the First Nation-Settler relationship. Though she didn’t know much about Indigenous perspectives in archaeology, Logie feels that First Nations issues have been on her mind her whole life.

Without direct consultation with First Nations people, Logie admits she “struggled” with presenting the sometimes opposing views on how First Nations and archaeologists should interact.

“[It was tricky] incorporating other voices without speaking for the group,” she explains. “I’m trying to find a way to speak along with the groups without speaking for them.”

And how does she present these issues without taking sides?

“I try and take a pretty central kind of view, and I hope I’ve included Indigenous voices that might not have been included before,” Logie says.

Logie has travelled to Poland to study how museums and other places memorialize the Holocaust, and during her work on Contested Histories, she began to see parallels with how Canadian institutions recognize First Nations history. She agrees with the findings of the Commission on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that Canada’s treatment of First Nations amounts to a genocide.

Growing even more interested in the topic, Logie decided to head to Concordia University in Montreal next fall for PhD studies about cultural genocide in Canada and how it is, or is not, presented in museums.

As for the London museum, Logie would like it to show not only the past, but also the present lives of First Nations. Survivors’ testimony, whether in art, written, or spoken forms, would be an effective way “to bear witness to a traumatic past,” she thinks.

Her research has opened Logie’s eyes to the fact that there are multiple First Nations’ perspectives on issues around archaeology, such as whether or not certain artifacts should be shown to the public, who decides which are displayed, and whether artifacts collected in past decades should be repatriated to First Nations.

“It’s not this binary view of archaeology versus the Indigenous people. There are people on both sides with different opinions. It’s much more complex than us versus them.”

Logie is hopeful for the future, saying archaeology is still evolving and First Nations are now actively collaborating with archaeologists in the quest for knowledge about the past.