FORT FRANCES –
A part of the Canadian Museums Association, The Fort Frances Museum and Cultural Centre took part in the CMA’s report titled Moved to Action: Activating UNDRIP in Museums.
The report aims to advance the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's "Call to Action #67," which asks the federal government to provide funding to the CMA to review, in partnership with Indigenous peoples, Canadian museum policies and practices and make recommendations for the sector to become more compliant with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The CMA represents over 2,700 museums, from small, volunteer-led museums to our national institutions in Canada.
Kayleigh Speirs, curator with the Fort Frances Museum and Cultural Centre, was part of the small museum committee that played a role in the creation of the report.
“It's a mix of everything,” she said. “This report is from one of the mandates in the TRC Calls to Action to do a massive assessment of reconciliation in museums across Canada. So, this is now [CMA’s] document that they made after they did a lot of engagement with museums, Indigenous-owned institutions, and museum professionals.”
The report makes 10 main recommendations that will provide a set of learning tools for the inclusion and representation of Indigenous communities within museums and cultural centres.
According to Speirs, the recommendation deals with engagement, partnerships, repatriations, collection, and operations.
“Everything museum-related with regards to Indigenous people,” she said.
One example is how museums can be more culturally sensitive in their displays, Speirs said.
“We have some Indigenous-focused exhibits on our second floor, so that is something previous curators have worked hard to ensure that they are including Indigenous voices and stories,” said Speirs. “A lot of our temporary and travelling exhibits we try to focus on Indigenous content and work with Indigenous curators and communities to create the exhibits.”
Speirs said it's important to reflect Indigenous perspectives in the Fort Frances Museum.
“In our forward planning and strategic planning, [we] will incorporate diversity and make sure we include Indigenous voices, since we are of course here on Treaty Three Territory. We are directly adjacent to Cochiching First Nation, so it’s really important for this museum to have that."
Speirs acknowledges the Fort Frances Museum has a few items that should be repatriated, and she wants to work on finding ways to give these items back to the communities where they belong.
“I’m hoping to work while I’m here to bring in some Indigenous Elders to have a look at some of the items and provide me with some guidance,” she said.
Speirs outlines that report helps guild museum curators in repatriation efforts.
For the future, Speirs is hope to get a particular project off the ground.
“It’s going to be a project that will incorporate all of the museums from the Treaty Three Area, and potentially as far as Thunder Bay as well, because we are all part of this network,” explains Speirs, “but basically, it’s a project where we want to create a framework for repatriation in kind of specific for the Treaty Three Territory. So, it would be taking something like this report and building on it and making it more specific, at the same time realizing that Treaty Three repatriation is completely different, there are different wants and needs by communities, but still, have a framework for this region. I think would be pretty unprecedented. I don’t think something like that really exists.”
