The Umista Cultural Centre

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The Umista Cultural Centre
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History of Umista

• Practice of potlatching was banned in 1884, but
  continued in Alert Bay until 1921
• In 1921 a potlatch hosted by the Cranmer family
  was discovered by the authorities and 45 people
  arrested. Masks and regalia belonging to the
  town were confiscated and then distributed to
  several museums and private collectors.
• The ban was lifted in 1951, and the people of
  Alert Bay began to demand that these artefacts be
  returned to them.

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• Eventually the National Museum of Man agreed to
  return its portion of the masks on the condition
  that they would be housed in a museum and not
  return to active use.
• The Umista Cultural Centre opened in 1980 and
  has since received several more masks and
  artefacts from other museums.

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Museum Values

• Preservation of the object and material culture
• Information is embedded in objects
• Changes and repairs to objects make them less
  authentic and representative
• Static moments and culture in linear time
• Secular, scientific values

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Criticism of Museum Values

• Encourages viewing societies as static and no
  longer living
• Promotes Eurocentric values and colonial
  perspectives on development and culture
• Exhibits often show little sensitivity to living
  descendants
• Objects viewed out of context lose their meaning

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Native Conservation Values

• Transmission of knowledge through oral culture
  and ritual
• Value of items is based in their continued use
  and history
• Culture is continuous, time cyclical no clear
  break between present and past
• Use, repair and wear and tear to objects can
  increase their value
• Objects have natural life cycles, and things that
  are no longer useful may be buried or destroyed

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Iceberg Model (from Clavir)

• Tangible
• the physical attributes of an item

• Intangible
• belief, ritual, history associated with
• the item

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Museum display

• Contains a large room where language and dance
  courses are offered
• Focus on oral histories and intangible knowledge,
  ex. Information stored about individual masks
• Masks are not placed behind glass and it is
  possible to come very close to them