Reconnecting Heritage: Repatriation and Museums
This CMR episode is in collaboration with Two Friends Talk History podcast, hosted and produced by Zofia Guertin, a PhD Candidate in the School of Classics. In this episode Zofia interviews Dr Barbara Winter to discuss how indigenous artefacts have traditionally been collected and displayed in western Canada. This discussion touches on the arguments historically used to keep acquired material culture outside of minority communities (by colonial powers) and in large museum collections. To challenge these historic narratives made by cultural heritage caretakers, we explore how repatriation reconnects individuals and communities to pre-colonial pasts and helps build confidence for future generations.
Listen Here*Dr Barbara Winter worked at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, for over thirty years as the curator for the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at the university. She worked in the Canadian Museum of History in Quebec, and the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, Northwest Territory.
*Zofia is also a freelance illustrator and public archaeologist, having worked in museums and on excavations in Greece, Spain, and Italy. Besides her podcast, she writes blogs on Ancient History and creates art and free-access educational materials about the ancient world.