The tems swiya Museum is a First Nations museum owned and operated by the shíshálh Nation, and located in Sechelt (ch'atlich), British Columbia, Canada.[1][2][3]
The museum's name means "Our World" in she shashishalhem, the shíshálh language. Its collection includes cedar baskets, art, photographs, audio recordings, and archaeological collections which include stone tools and the prehistoric sculpture known as The Grieving Mother.[2] The museum is part of a cultural and administrative complex on the site of the former St. Augustine's Indian Residential School, which closed in 1975, the last remains of which were burned in 2008.[1]
The Grieving Mother
editThe Grieving Mother or Our Grieving Mother is considered the museum's "most exceptional artifact"[4] and Wilson Duff called it "the outstanding prehistoric sculpture in British Columbia".[5] It is a mortuary stone about 3,500 years old, commemorating a chief's wife who drowned herself after the death of her only son.[4] The stone was discovered in 1921 and was sold to the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) by chief Dan Paull in 1926 for $25 for its safekeeping. In the MOV it was known as the Sechelt Image. The shíshálh had requested its return in 1976 but at that time had no suitable accommodation for it, and the MOV offered to make a replica for them. The tems swiya Museum opened in 1994 and negotiations for the stone's return resumed in 2010. The stone was returned to the shíshálh in October 2010. Leaders went to the museum to prepare the stone for its journey with prayers and rituals, and it was wrapped in a hand-woven Salish blanket and packaged in a crate lined with cedar. Its return to the shíshálh's land was celebrated with a ceremony and feast.[5][6][7]
References
edit- ^ a b Gurney, Michael (14 April 2022). "shíshálh Nation's tems swiya Museum reopens". Coast Reporter. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
- ^ a b "tems swiya Museum". Coast Cultural Alliance (CCA). Retrieved 17 July 2022.
- ^ "Tems Swiya Museum". Art-BC. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
- ^ a b McMahon, Donna (12 July 2017). "Shíshálh ancestors exhibit comes home". The Local Weekly. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
- ^ a b Miller, Bruce Granville (Autumn 2018). "Repatriation in two acts: the Museum of Vancouver". BC Studies. 199: 81–94. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
- ^ Seidl, Joan (10 November 2010). "Our Grieving Mother returns to Sechelt". Museum of Vancouver. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014.
- ^ Follington, Kate (8 July 2011). "When Museum Artifacts Go Home". The Tyee. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
External links
edit49°28′26″N 123°45′04″W / 49.474°N 123.751°W
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