Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, England | March 30-31, 2011

In 2010, the Galt Museum & Archives hosted “Kaahsinnooniksi Ao'toksisawooyawa” Our ancestors have come to visit: Blackfoot Shirts — an exhibit of five historic Blackfoot shirts from the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford in England. Galt Curator Wendy Aitkens has been invited to speak at the Blackfoot Shirts Conference at Pitt Rivers Museum on March 30-31 to talk about the Galt’s involvement in the project and the ways in which the Galt, a collaborative community-focused museum, made connections and built relationships with Blackfoot people from southern Alberta and Montana. 

 “The Blackfoot Shirts project at the Galt strengthened our resolve to work with other groups and people in our community to learn from their voice, their knowledge and their culture and provide opportunities for all that to be shared with the broader community,” says Aitkens. “I am honoured to be able to present alongside members of the Blackfoot community to our international colleagues.”

 Others presenting at the conference include Siksika (Blackfoot), Kainai (Blood), Piikani (Peigan) and Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet) people, Glenbow Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum staff.

 In 2010, the five shirts returned to Blackfoot territory after 170 years. They first travelled to Glenbow Museum in Calgary where 230 Blackfoot people visited them during handling workshops.  The shirts then went on display before being transported to the Galt for another series of handling workshops. 

 Some 320 Blackfoot people came to the Galt to see the shirts, to touch them, to study their construction and design, and to learn from them before they were put on exhibit from June 5 to August 29, 2010 along with other artifacts. The Grand Opening, related on-site programs and off-site bus tours involved Blackfoot people sharing their culture, music, dance, stories and beliefs with museum visitors.

 Information on upcoming exhibits, other programs and events is available on the Galt Museum & Archives website: www.galtmuseum.com.

Blackfoot Shirts Conference PREPERATORY NOTES

30 and 31 March 2011

This conference is part of a project involving the loan in 2010 of five Blackfoot shirts to museums in Alberta, with associated handling sessions for Blackfoot people followed by the exhibition of the shirts. The project explores the ways in which close access to heritage objects strengthens Indigenous identity and culture, and we have learned a great deal about the shirts and about handling projects across the project. The purpose of this conference is to share what we have learned; to bring Blackfoot community representatives and UK museum representatives into contact to begin dialogue; to pool experience across UK and Canadian museum representatives on community-based handling projects; to discuss conservation issues related to this and similar projects; and to learn about the impact such projects have on Indigenous communities.

 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Day 1, 30 March:

10.00                Opening prayer

Official welcome          Dr Michael O’Hanlon, Director

10.15-10.30                  Introduction to the conference and the Blackfoot Shirts Project 

Laura Peers

10.30 – 11.00                The Blackfoot Shirts Project: Community Reflections

Frank Weasel Head

11.00-11.15      Break

11.15-13.00      Concurrent sessions  

1)    Handling sessions for the Blackfoot Shirts Project 5 shirts, 500 people handling them: *PRM conservation lab

2)    Developing community-based research projects: sharing knowledge and perspectives

*Participants will divide into two groups for about 40 mins per session and then move to the other session

13.00-14.30      Lunch (catered at PRM)

14.30-15.45      Breakout groups

1)   Conserving the Blackfoot Shirts (for conservators, PRM conservation lab)

2)   Exhibiting the Blackfoot Shirts: sharing information from the project consultation phase and drawing on UK experience of creating Northern Plains exhibitions (chair: Stephanie Pratt)

15.45-16.00      Break

16.15-17.15                  The Blackfoot Shirts Project: Community Reflections

Allan Pard, Delia Cross Child and Narcisse Blood

*screening of video by Narcisse Blood on community participation in the Blackfoot Shirts Project

Reception at PRM to 6.45 pm

Conference dinner, CAFÉ ROUGE, Little Clarendon Street, 7 pm

 DAY 2, Thursday 31 March

09.15-09.40                  Changing relationships between Canadian/US museums and Blackfoot and implications of this for non-North American museums.

Gerry Conaty

09.40-10.00                  Connecting With Community

Wendy Aitkens, Galt Museum

10.00-10.20                  Conservation Issues

                                    Heather Richardson

10.20-10.40      Break

10.40-11.30                  The Blackfoot Shirts Project: Community Reflections

                                    Herman Yellow Old Woman, Lea Whitford

 11.30-13.00                  Presentations on Blackfoot collections

Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter (Tony Eccles)

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge (Anita Herle)

Manchester Museum (Sam Sportum)

Shirts in mainland European collections (Martin Schultz)

13.00 – 14.00    Lunch (catered at PRM)

14.00 – 15.00                The Blackfoot Shirts Project: Artists’ perspectives

Debbie Magee Sherer and Delia Cross Child

15.00-16.00      Panel discussion:

                                    Museum/community Implications

Wendy Aitkens

Gerry Conaty

Herman Yellow Old Woman

 Narcisse Blood

Laura Peers

(chair: Sarah Carter)

16.00                Concluding remarks