Jiingwan: Sounding Out Law

This pilot project explores the relationship between sound and law, as well as institutional and tribal protocols. Its goal is to reconnect historical sound-making heritage items in museums with the First Nations communities from which they originated. The overall objectives are threefold: to hear the voices of these subjects sounded again by their home communities; to connect sound with law as a means of engaging with legal pluralism; and to understand different conceptions of law, such as through relationships and songs.

Our first step was connecting with a museum institution that would be amenable to having an item from their collection travel to back to the First Nation community of origin. This relationship was forged with the Canadian Museum of History in the spring of 2017. After considering their catalogue of Great Lakes artifacts, our project members collectively decided that the best path forward would be work with two rattles from the Wasauksing First Nation, one of which was obtained by Dr. Diamond Jenness, an anthropologist who worked at the National Museum of Canada (the precursor to the Canadian Museum of History) and who visited the community in 1929.

After writing to the Wasauksing Chief and Council, we heard back from the community and have been discussing our timeline and the next step of presenting our partnership proposal to the Wasauksing First Nation Council. We are currently in active correspondence and hope that the rattles can be sounded at the 2018 Wasauksing traditional pow wow.