(especially in the case of British Columbia, which is all unceded territory, and half of the island itself is private land, due to the E&A Railway Grant, where the federal government gave half of Vancouver Island away!)...Check out the map below, illustrating what part of the island I'm talking about. I got this image from a paper by W.A. Taylor (1975). In terms of co-management and reconciliation, I'm wondering how laws would work to aid in repatriation...having a binding legal agreement in order for First Nations to reclaim items and remains from (treaty-free) land seems ridiculous, especially with contemporary colonialism reitering racism and oppression (having to navigate complicated laws and barriers at various levels of government seems like a bit of a slap in the face to concerned First Nations). In my opinion, the whole concept of displaying remains and grave goods in museums is still odd; especially if it is purposefully a different "race" so to speak. I am still struggling to form a solid opinion on this topic, an obvious though challenging theme of the course: RESPECT WHILE LEARNING ABOUT THE DECEASED...respect is necessary, however how to show it while learning from a system based on colonialism challenges me both as a student and in my daily life.
How would laws to protect sites work? For example, the first guest speaker discussed language barriers between First Nations and others involved, (among other things) which complicated the repartiation issue. And what about contracted archaeologists who work on sites where the remains are contested between different groups? (as in the other example given by the first guest lecturer) Repatriation is SUCH a vast, multi-faceted issue, and in a place like BC where no treaties were signed and there are ongoing land claim agreements, is something like NAGPRA appropriate? Or should we look at smaller-provincial/territorial scale laws? What are your thoughts?
Taylor, W.A, 1975. Crown Land Grants: A History of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Land Grants, The Railway and Peace River Block [online], Available at:http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:4vvc_iTY37oJ:www.ltsa.ca/data/img/publication/Crown-Land-Grants-A-History-of-the-E-and-N.pdf+e%26n+railway+grant&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgdYMdknc1Ht5lwJoiCkUAH18XQgwIHmXiTTwRSdzxsbrthdvGV6EsV8Y6y64JqWJoxxk_BxvIZGYDWwdXetVJ-yScJX07uw9irevvJ4nwA-Nul1xhhoALpsNBIvj8f4hJ9iKZb&sig=AHIEtbT8PTagQD5Bx_VuP3jqUPo_iSMF9g [Accessed March 30, 2011].
