The Cedar Grandparent

On September 29, 2023, in Lax̱g̱alts'ap, in the Nass Valley of British Columbia, hundreds of people gathered at the Nisg̱a'a Museum. There was a welcoming ceremony, then a feast.

The guest of honour stood about 11 metres tall. It was made of red cedar, almost all from a single piece. And it was back from a very long trip: 94 years away from home.

It was the memorial pole of the House of Ni'isjoohl, of the G̱anada, or frog, clan of the Nisg̱a'a Nation.

In the 1860s, matriarch Joanna Moody, or 'Ntsitskaos, commissioned it to honour Ts'aawit. This family member, a warrior, died protecting his family and his nation. Master carver Oyee Tait carved it from cedar.

For decades, the pole watched over the village of Ank'idaa.

In 1929, anthropologist Marius Barbeau, of the National Museum of Canada, took it away. He sold it to the Royal Scottish Museum, now the National Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh. The pole arrived there in 1930.

In 1991, a Nisg̱a'a delegation asked for its return. They were told it was too fragile to travel.

Then came Amy Parent. This Nisg̱a'a scholar, a Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University, is a descendant of Joanna Moody. She dug into her Nation's oral histories and into museum records. Her research became part of the formal request for return.

She also rejected a word: "artifact." For her, a living ancestor cannot be owned by an institution. And she speaks of "rematriation" rather than repatriation, because Nisg̱a'a society is matrilineal.

In August 2022, a seven-person delegation travelled to Edinburgh. It asked for the pole's unconditional return. In December, the museum agreed.

Sometimes it is enough to dare to ask again, with the right words.

In August 2023, a larger delegation went back to Scotland. It held a spiritual ceremony to prepare the pole for the journey. The Scottish Government and the museum gave it a formal apology.

According to the museum's director, it was the first return of its kind by a UK national institution.

A Royal Canadian Air Force plane flew the pole back to British Columbia. A family procession then escorted it by road to Lax̱g̱alts'ap.

On October 3, 2023, the pole was raised inside the Nisg̱a'a Museum. Today, young people can learn the stories that go with it there, and the art of carving.

The chief of the House of Ni'isjoohl, Sim'oogit Ni'isjoohl, Earl Stephens, summed up the return:

A family is never complete while one of its own is missing. By returning the pole, a Scottish museum also recognized that this Nisg̱a'a "we" had always included a cedar grandparent.