From Samantha Giguere
In October, a team of GRASAC Anishinaabe Knowledge Holders, including staff from the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF), travelled to the Städtisches Museum in Braunschweig, Germany and the Nordamerika Native Museum (NONAM) in Zurich, Switzerland to reconnect with Great Lakes relatives in the museums’ collections. The team visited upwards of 60 relatives between both museums. Their designs and methods of making represented a number of nations from the Great Lakes.
The research team began their week-long journey at the Städtisches Museum Braunschweig. The relationship between, OFC, GRASAC, and the museum began in 2022 when curator Rainer Hatoum travelled to the OCF with an interest in gathering knowledge from community members. OCF staff redirected Hatoum in his approach to focus on building the relationship between community and the relatives housed at Städtisches Museum Braunschweig. The collection in Braunschweig largely consists of pieces brought back by German mercenaries who fought in the American War of Independence (1776-83), including moccasins, a model canoe, pipe tomahawks, and two painted drumheads. The drumheads, once assembled as a single drum, were a special focus of the visit. Performing ceremony with this relative was a powerful experience for researchers and museum staff alike. A physical reminder of this remains in the exhibit with an offering to the drum placed within the display case. This accompanies an offering provided by the OCF in 2022 during Hatoum’s visit.
The second half of the week was spent at the NONAM in Zurich. GRASAC initially connected with the museum through a researcher from the Treatied Spaces Research Group whose research involved NONAM. The museum is understood by staff to be one of less than a handful of institutions in Europe focused exclusively on Indigenous peoples from North America. The NONAM collection was initially purchased from a private collector by the City of Zurich in 1961, establishing the museum in 1963. NONAM holds and exhibits cultural objects, but no longer actively collects them. They now focus on acquiring art from contemporary Indigenous artists. Over two days at NONAM, the research team was able to visit relatives both in the exhibition space and in the museum storage, exchanging knowledge with museum staff. The pieces included bandolier bags, moccasins, a beaded saddle, war clubs, and birchbark boxes, among others.
The visit at each museum included an organized Zoom session with community members calling in from home. Those who called in were able to closely view the relatives, ask questions of the research team and museum staff, and share their thoughts and knowledge. Even through a virtual call from thousands of miles away, community members shared how they were positively impacted by making this connection to these relatives.
Staff at both Städtisches Museum Braunschweig and NONAM expressed their dedication to continuing their relationships with GRASAC and the OCF. The research team and museum staff alike view this trip as a single step in a longer journey of reconnecting relatives to their communities.
