The Rematriation of the House of Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole

The House of Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole, stolen from the Nisga’a Nation in the 1920s, was rematriated from National Museums Scotland (NMS) in 2023. Noxs Ts’aawit (Dr. Amy Parent) of The Nisga’a Nation and Dr. John Giblin from NMS outline the process of international cooperation to rematriate the Memorial Pole to its ancestral home.

A group of medium skin tone people wearing traditional clothing of the Nisga’a Nation stand on a balcony behind the wooden Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole. The pole depicts animals carved into the wood and extends out of shot at the top and bottom of the image.

Return (And Other Stories) is a series of stories which aim to make the ideas and processes of Restitution and Rematriation more accessible to museum workers and those interested in the topic.

Rematriation is a crucial part of decolonising initiatives and a clear way in which we can actively lead change, consider and reimagine the role of museums and galleries in understanding and addressing legacies of Colonialism, Slavery and Empire.

Content Warning: This article mentions the death of an ancestor of the Nisga’a Nation, and subsequent violence Nisga’a people suffered at the hands of European colonialists.

A person with medium skin tone and long brown hair, who is wearing a red jacket with large black buttons, and a black top, leans against a wall with their arms crossed and stares directly in to the camera

Noxs Ts’aawit (Dr. Amy Parent)

Contributor from the Nisga’a Nation and Simon Fraser University

Noxs Ts’aawit (Dr. Amy Parent) is Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Canada Research Chair, Indigenous Governance and Education Inaugural Associate Director, Cassidy Centre for Educational Justice, at Simon Fraser University.

A person with light skin and short curly brown hair, who is wearing a grey suit jacket and white shirt, leans against a railing and stares directly in to the camera.

Dr John Giblin

Contributor from National Museums Scotland

Dr John Giblin is Keeper of Global Arts, Cultures and Design at National Museums Scotland

A note from the Co-Authors

Before writing this piece, we discussed options of writing separate accounts. However, we decided that we preferred to write a shared account and to undertake the process that this entailed. This piece is the result of that process.

The terms rematriation and rematriated are used throughout this return story. Rematriated is the preferred term because the Nisga’a are a matrilineal society. Noxs Ts’aawit (Dr. Amy Parent) provides a detailed explanation on the importance of challenging the colonialism and patriarchy that’s inherent in these terms and practices with public, scholarly and governmental audiences.

The House of Ni’isjoohl pole is a memorial pole from the Nisga’a Nation. The pole tells the story of an ancestor, Ts’awit, who was a warrior and was next in line to be chief. Ts’awit was killed in a conflict with a neighbouring Nation. Nisga’a matriarch, Joanna Moody had the pole carved and erected in the Nisga’a village of Ank’idaa in Ts’wawit’s honour in the 1860s. It was carved by Oyay, a prolific Nisg̱a’a carver.

The House of Ni’isjoohl pole stood in the Nisga’a village of Ank’idaa until the late 1920s when it was taken by Marius Barbeau, a French-Canadian colonial anthropologist, on behalf of the Royal Scottish Museum (now National Museums Scotland). National Museums Scotland’s records suggest that Barbeau paid 600 CAD for the pole on behalf of the museum. Nisga’a oral histories record that the pole was stolen from Ank’idaa by Barbeau when the community was away for the fishing season.

The pole was shipped to Scotland and was on display in the Royal Scottish Museum from 1930 until it was returned in 2023.

Noxs Ts’aawit (Dr. Amy Parent) – Mother of the Raven Warrior Chief and the great, great, great, granddaughter of Joanna Moody – led the demand for the rematriation of the pole.

Noxs Ts’aawit was undertaking academic research for a Nisga’a language revitalisation project when she was asked by Sim’oogit Ni’isjoohl (Chief Earl Stephens) for assistance funding the raising of a new replica House of Ni’isjoohl pole. In the same conversation, Sim’oogit Ni’isjoohl asked Noxs Ts’aawit to help him find out more information on the original pole from Scotland. After further research they decided to assemble a delegation to demand its return.

National Museums Scotland learnt of the campaign and shared with Noxs Ts’aawit its procedure for considering transfer requests, as well as conservation records associated with the pole.

In 2022, a delegation from the Nisga’a Nation led by Noxs Ts’aawit and Sim’oogit Ni’isjoohl, with representatives from the Nisga’a Lisims Government and the Nisga’a Museum, was hosted at the National Museum of Scotland. During that visit, the Nisga’a delegation rejected the National Museums Scotland procedure on the basis that:

“Sacred belongings are not museum ‘objects’ that can be owned. Your museum procedures only relate to ‘belongings’ as property. We have provided evidence to you today that the pole is more than an ‘object’, ‘property’, or a ‘cultural artifact’ that can be controlled by a museum. We want the spirit of our pole to be free in the lands where it belongs. We are here to bring our ancestor home with us.”

The delegation demanded the return of the pole within three days.

A group of medium skin tone people wearing traditional clothing of the Nisga’a Nation walk together as a group through the atrium of a large columned room. The glass and lamp from a lighthouse and a green cast iron drinking fountain are visible in the background.

The Nisga’a Delegation arrive at the National Museum of Scotland for a spiritual ceremony to prepare the Ni’isjoohl memorial pole for it's journey home © Duncan McGlynn

National Museums Scotland has a Procedure for Considering Requests for the Permanent Transfer of Collection Objects to Non-UK Claimants. The procedure sets out, within the legal framework that constituted National Museums Scotland, the conditions under which requests can be considered and how these will be processed.

The Nisga’a Delegation rejected the procedure because the pole is a living ancestor, cannot be owned by a museum and was not subject to Western legal structures that clashed with Nisga’a epistemological, ontological and legal frameworks.

Through ongoing dialogue, a mutually acceptable position was found, and it was agreed that, although the Nisga’a Delegation rejected the procedure, National Museums Scotland would use it to process the Delegation’s oral testimony and written evidence as a request and would return with a response in three months. The Nisga’a Nation would follow its laws and protocols in conjunction with Canadian law as necessary until the pole was returned to the House of Ni’isjoohl.

National Museums Scotland followed its procedure and in November 2022 made a recommendation to the Scottish Government to rematriate the pole. The Scottish Government confirmed that decision.

Once the decision was made, the Nisga’a Delegation and National Museums Scotland collaborated on the complex cultural and logistical arrangements for the rematriation of the pole.

Following cultural protocols to protect the pole in transit, the pole was lowered and flown to the Nisga’a Nation in September 2023. After an arrival ceremony in the Nass Valley, the pole was raised in the Nisga’a Museum in October 2023.

The cost of moving the pole out of the National Museum of Scotland and to an airbase in the UK was funded by the Scottish Government (£300,000). The remaining costs were funded directly or in-kind by Canada (including the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces with coordination among many federal departments), British Columbia, the Nisga’a Nation, and the House of Ni’isjoohl family.

All contributors to the pole’s return are listed in Noxs Ts’aawit’s account of the rematriation process.

“We are grateful for the common bowl efforts of many people within and outside our Nation that have courageously walked with us to support a historic precedent for the rematriation of the Ni’isjoohl pole in the United Kingdom for our family, Nation and the international community”.
The House of Ni’isjoohl

A group of medium skin tone people wearing traditional clothing of the Nisga’a Nation stand before a carved wooden memorial pole that is lying on its side in a steel framed box. Green tree branches decorate the box.

Nisga’a Nation celebrate the return of ancestral totem pole to their territory, on September 29, 2023. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 BC Gov Photos

Many challenges were faced throughout the process. Some of the National Museums Scotland’s learnings include:

The procedure is intended to provide legal and processual clarity for staff and Trustees and claimants, however, as a new technical document it clashed with Nisga’a ontology, epistemology, laws and protocols stemming from the over 10,000-year-old culture.
The procedure required a request to be made in writing when the Nisga’a privilege orality – in response National Museums Scotland accepted oral testimony as claim.
The procedure required a request to be made by a national body with support from a national government and be transferred a national body. In response to the House of Ni’isjoohl and Nisga’a Lisims Government’s written support letters and oral testimony the National Museums Scotland took legal advice and learned that within Canada the Nisga’a Nation is a self-determining nation and the Nisga’a Museum could be considered a national body.
National Museums Scotland’s transfer procedure did not make provision for Nisga’a consultation and input once the original demand for return was made, and the process had begun. The Nisga’a delegation reported that this caused legal and emotional tension until the final decision was shared and recommended that changes be made to the procedure to ensure greater collaboration. National Museums Scotland agreed to take this into consideration when the procedure is reviewed.
The most important activity undertaken following the decision to rematriate the pole, was for National Museums Scotland staff to visit the Nisga’a Nation, to learn and to build trust and understanding.

Supporting Exemplars from Noxs Ts’aawit (Dr. Amy Parent)

The rematriation reflected the legal recognition of the Nisga’a Lisims Government and its capacity to represent the Nisga’a Nation and its citizens with respect to their interests on an international stage; while supporting advances to enhance understandings of complex Indigenous self-governance issues to museum practices and policies. The assistance and cooperation from the governments of Scotland, the United Kingdom and Canada was also consistent in bringing to life their international obligations and commitments under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in particular Articles 11 and 12.
Culturally, the rematriation for the Nisga’a Nation has successfully expanded understandings of the intergenerational knowledge, language, ancestral stories, place names, and territorial rights that are depicted in the House of Ni’isjoohl poles for current and future generations of Nisga’a children; and has strengthened cultural identities, pride and interest in Nisga’a carving traditions, governance and rematriation.
National Museums Scotland, the Nisga’a Museum and the Museum of Anthropology collaborated to develop physical rematriation practices to de-install, transport and raise the 163-year old Ni’isjoohl totem pole via air cargo safely; thereby enhancing crucial knowledge for the future movement of fragile Indigenous cultural belongings globally.

We want our children to wake up every day and not have to work so hard to learn the stories of who we are and where we come from with every breath that they take. Every breath that they take. Bringing home our dear ancestor, our memorial pole now means that our children and future generations in our Nation will have more than one story to tell.
Noxs Ts’aawit , Dr. Amy Parent

The Cassidy Centre for Educational Justice (CCEJ) at Simon Fraser University generously created a bursary award ($1000/yr) to commemorate the Ni’isjoohl rematriation and to support students in School District 92: Nisga’a to pursue social justice and rematriation related activities for their post-secondary studies and career aspirations.
Key political leaders from the Nisga’a Nation, Canada, B.C. and Scotland attended the rematriation arrival ceremony and international feast with over 600 witnesses in attendance.
On September 29, 2023, the Nisga’a flag was flown at the Scottish Government headquarters as an act of international diplomacy, reparation and reconciliation.
The Ni’isjoohl rematriation was a top media story in Canada on September 29, 2023, with worldwide press coverage (approximately 712 media posts including several BBC outlets). This also included Canadian journalists from the Narwhal, Smithsonian Magazine and Canadian Geographic winning national journalism awards for their coverage of the story. The term “rematriation” was successfully introduced into public and settler institutional discourse as result of the House of Ni’isjoohl and Nisga’a Lisims Government’s engagement with the media. The term stolen was adopted by Canadian journalists without question, while the UK media undertook a conservative approach by bracketing the term “stolen” in their coverage.
British Columbia Historical Federation Certificate of merit awarded to the Ni’isjoohl delegation team in 2023.
Noxs Ts’aawit, Dr Amy Parent received the Ehor Boyanowsky Distinguished Academic of the Year award 2024 from the British Columbia Faculty Association for her research and knowledge mobilization on the rematriation.

An important question arises from the challenges associated with this case.

“How might museums work in collaboration with their national government to develop policies that align with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to support the cultural interface of the legal systems, policy, protocols and processes of the museum and Indigenous nations equally?”

More detailed account of pole’s historical and cultural context and the initial research that led to the rematriation, and the process of initiating the rematriation request can be found in these additional resources.

Parent, A., Ts’aawit, N., Moore, W., & Duuḵ, S. (2023). Afterword: Building Solidarity: Moving Towards the Repatriation of the House of Ni’isjoohl Totem Pole. In E. Bond & M. Morris (Eds.), Scotland’s Transnational Heritage: Legacies of Empire and Slavery (pp. 218–234). Edinburgh University Press. (Academic Paywall)

The Cassidy Centre for Educational Justice (2023). Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole Rematriation Panel Discussion [Video]. Vimeo.

International Council of Museums, (October 2023). Museums and Chill Podcast Episode Six, The Rematriation of the Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole.