Protection Of First Nations Cultural Heritage

Indigenous peoples around the world are seeking greater control over tangible and intangible cultural heritage. In Canada, issues concerning repatriation and trade of material culture, heritage site protection, treatment of ancestral remains, and control over intangible heritage are governed by a complex legal and policy environment. This volume looks at the key features of Canadian, US, and international law influencing indigenous cultural heritage in Canada. Legal and extralegal avenues for reform are examined and opportunities and limits of existing frameworks are discussed. Is a radical shift in legal and political relations necessary for First Nations concerns to be meaningfully addressed?

First Nations Cultural Heritage and Law explores First Nations perspectives on cultural heritage and issues of reform within and beyond Western law. Written in collaboration with First Nation partners, it contains seven case studies featuring indigenous concepts, legal orders, and encounters with legislation and negotiations; a national review essay; three chapters reflecting on major themes; and a self-reflective critique on the challenges of collaborative and intercultural research. Although the volume draws on specific First Nation experiences, it covers a wide range of topics of concern to Inuit, Metis, and other indigenous peoples.

Guidelines include purpose of indigenous heritage conservation and the consultation and negotiation process. Includes indigenous management checklist.

This book examines the ways in which law can be used to structure the return of indigenous sacred cultural heritage to indigenous communities, referred to as repatriation in this volume. In particular, it aims at developing legal structures that align repatriation with contemporary international human rights standards. To do so, it gathers the most valuable lessons learned from different repatriation laws and frameworks adopted in the United States and Canada. In both countries, very different ways of approaching repatriation have been used for several decades, highlighting the context-dependent nature of repatriation. The volume is divided into four parts, looking first at international law, then at the national legal landscape in the United States, followed by Canada, before the different repatriation models are evaluated against the backdrop of human rights law standards. Emphasis is placed not only on repatriation-specific legislation but also on the legal context in which it was developed and operates. In turn, the fourth part develops various models on the basis of these experiences that can be aligned with contemporary indigenous and cultural rights. The book ends by considering the models’ suitability for international repatriation and the lessons that can be learned from them. The primary audience includes those addressing the legal hurdles to repatriation, be they researchers, policymakers, communities, or museums.

This collection brings together selected articles on key areas in the field of cultural heritage rights discourse. Contributed by an international group of scholars, the papers address conceptual and political issues and explore themes in contemporary literature on cultural heritage such as repatriation, looting and illicit trade, the effects of armed conflict and the relationship between tourism, economic development and cultural heritage. The legal regulation of cultural heritage is also discussed, with articles on regulatory challenges, current practices around the world and issues and challenges in common. Topics which are likely to become increasingly important in the future, such as climate change, cultural globalisation, human genomic science and the shift to a post-liberal, post-rights politics and law of cultural heritage, are also explored. This volume, which presents the most up-to-date scholarship in an area of increasing interest and relevance, is an indispensable reference resource for libraries, lecturers and students.

Indigenous cultural heritage (ICH) is rapidly diminishing worldwide, driven by factors like development, private property rights, and colonial planning. This study centers on the Comox Valley within the Land of Plenty, the Territory of K'ómoks First Nation, serving as a case study that examines the interplay between Indigenous cultural heritage policies and local planning. Through 40 semi-structured interviews with local planners and knowledge holders, I identify pathways of ICH protection through local government implementation of K'ómoks First Nation's Cultural Heritage Policy. The purpose of this research paper is to explore how First Nations exert self-determination over their ICH, how ICH interacts with local planning, and how local governments can respond to strengthen ICH protection at the local level. The findings reveal that local level implementation of Indigenous cultural heritage policies helps ensure that ICH protection strategies are place-based, effective, and appropriate. This implementation simultaneously fosters relationships and enhances cross-cultural knowledge and respect.

In From Recognition to Reconciliation, twenty leading scholars reflect on the continuing transformation of the constitutional relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state.

This book provides a unique, in-depth look at three Indigenous World Heritage sites in Canada and their use for Indigenous empowerment and community development. Based on extensive ethnographic field studies and comprehensive narrative interviews, it shows how the three First Nation communities presented in the case studies enforce recognition of their collective rights to preserve their cultural heritage and assert their right to political, economic, cultural, and social self-determination. It also considers the prevailing universalistic discourses around World Heritage and the various ways in which they serve to either reinforce existing oppressive conditions regarding Indigenous communities and voices or provide opportunities to overcome them. The book will be of interest to scholars and students working on social and cultural histories, histories of colonialism, and in heritage and museum studies.

Preserving What Is Valued explores the concept of preserving heritage. It presents the conservation profession's code of ethics and discusses four significant contexts embedded in museum conservation practice: science, professionalization, museum practice, and the relationship between museums and First Nations peoples. Museum practice regarding handling and preservation of objects has been largely taken as a given, and it can be difficult to see how these activities are politicized. Clavir argues that museum practices are historically grounded and represent values that are not necessarily held by the originators of the objects. She first focuses on conservation and explains the principles and methods conservators practise. She then discusses First Nations people's perspectives on preservation, quoting extensively from interviews done throughout British Columbia, and comparing the British Columbia situation with that in New Zealand. In the face of cultural repatriation issues, museums are attempting to become more culturally sensitive to the original owners of objects, forming new understandings of the "right ways" of storage and handling of materials. Miriam Clavir's work is important for museum professionals, conservators, those working with First Nations collections in auction houses and galleries, as well as students of sociology and anthropology.

Four articles cover archival practices at a small liberal arts college, repatriation of sacred objects, emergence of the African art collection at The Kreeger Museum, and exhibit creation process at The Rockefeller Archive Center.