By Amanda McLeod
GRASAC researchers recently visited many Great Lakes relatives at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM) in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The team included seasoned researchers Maureen Matthews, Pamela Klassen, Cary Miller, and Amanda McLeod, as well as Charles Feaver who did the detailed object photography.
Maureen originally connected with Senior SEM Curator Marko Frelih in 2015 at the EU-funded SWICH Co-collecting workshop, a meeting of senior staff members of European ethnographic museums. On the final day of the conference, there was a roundup of interesting projects each museum was working on. After his brief report, Marko stated he had three slides specifically for Maureen, photographs of beautiful relatives from the Baraga Collection that no one from North America had ever visited. They came into the SEM collection in 1837 thanks to Bishop Frederic Baraga, a famous linguist whose Anishinaabemowin dictionary is still in use today. Marko said that many linguists had come to study Baraga’s notes on syntax and verb construction, but only one Swiss scholar had ever come to see the collection. He invited Maureen to visit but, unfortunately, she was too busy to do so in her previous position as Curator of Cultural Anthropology at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg. Finally, almost ten years later, she made the journey on behalf of GRASAC.
Marko, Maureen, and Ana discussing the details of a mid-1830s bandolier bag (E 2877), whose central design is currently used as a main decorative element in the SEM’s “North American Indians” exhibit.
Irenej Frederic Baraga was a Catholic priest, missionary, bishop, prolific writer, and linguist who worked in the Great Lakes region from 1831 until his death in 1868. He was fluent and wrote countless works in Anishinaabemowin and Ottawa, including prayer books, biblical histories, sermons, translations, and devotional guides. He travelled widely in the Great Lakes region and kept mission bases in Arbre Croche (now Harbor Springs, MI), L’Anse (located in Baraga County, MI), Grand River, MI, La Pointe (Madeline Island, WI), Sault Ste. Marie, MI, and Marquette, MI. It was on these travels that he amassed a large Great Lakes collection, which is now housed at the SEM.
The GRASAC team visited SEM over a three-day period in December, working closely with new GRASAC friends Marko and Conservation and Restoration Department Manager Ana Motnikar. They started in the museum’s “North American Indians” exhibit, examining and photographing the relatives currently on display. They quickly identified two Anishinaabe pipes, which, based on their lengths and Baraga’s documentation, are believed to be diplomatic and social ones; however, both had their stems and bowls connected. The team explained the Anishinaabe concept of object animacy and how pipes are considered to be living entities, “old men” or “grandfathers,” and that they were “awake” in their current connected state. The SEM staff were very receptive and immediately took the pipes off display. Almost two hundred years after their initial journey to Slovenia, the pipes were greeted with medicines brought from Manitoba by Maureen, and Amanda quietly spoke to them before putting them both to sleep by disconnecting the stems and bowls. SEM pledged to create new mounts for the pipes to ensure they continue resting while on display. Amanda, who is a trained conservator, was also able to help Ana in the cleaning of a beautiful birchbark bag.
Amanda and Ana cleaning the beautiful quillwork decorating a 19th-century birchbark bag (E 2895).
Two colleagues were Zoomed in to look at a few particularly interesting objects: Alan Corbiere helped the team with the quillwork imagery on one of the pipes and Mikinaak Migwans pointed out details in two spectacular woven bulrush mats and showed how to identify the top and bottom of the weaving.
Cary, whose PhD dissertation research focused on the way the Anishinaabeg in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan used their relationships with Christian missionaries to sustain or protect their leadership roles within Anishinaabe communities, shared extensive insights into the relatives in the SEM collections and helped situate them in terms of the treaty negotiations and other political events in the areas and time period Baraga visited and collected from. Her book based on her thesis, Ogimaag: Anishinaabe Leadership 1760-1845, covers the period when Baraga was in North America.
The GRASAC visit fit right into Pamela’s current research, which focuses on colonialism, treaties, museums, and public memory. One of her PhD students compiled an extensive summary and annotated bibliography on Baraga, which she shared with the group prior to the trip. Pamela was especially interested in the fact that the Baraga Collection is one of the earliest intentionally gathered by Europeans from Great Lakes Anishinaabeg, and demonstrates the early 19th-century expertise of their makers. For a collection of Anishinaabe relatives and cultural items that have been as closely associated to their collector instead of their makers as this one, it was remarkable to see and recognize how these creations were imbued with the meanings and stories of their time.
It was agreed between the GRASAC team and SEM staff that the current “North American Indians” exhibit is out-of-date and culturally inaccurate. The team will continue to work with SEM to update the information and terminology, with the museum aiming to open a renewed Anishinaabe gallery in 2026.
Throughout the visit, Charles carried out fantastic photography on all the objects. Over the coming months, the images, notes, and insights will be integrated into the GKS.
Many thanks to the Slovene Ethnographic Museum for their warm welcome and support throughout the visit!
Maureen using magnifying goggles to closely examine one of her favourite objects in the Baraga Collection, an 1830s finger-woven worsted-wool bag (E 2868). A woven bulrush mat can be seen in the foreground (E 2864).