Public

News Reports from Witsuwit'en Yin Tah: Reconnecting to Witsutwit'en History - Restoring Relations with the K'ëgit Totem Pole

Amanda Follett Hosgood wrote an amazing article on the project for The Tyee. Published 3 January 2025How a Wet’suwet’en Totem Pole Wound Up in Paris: Inside a generational journey of reconnection and education.https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2025/01/03/Wetsuweten-Totem-Pole-Paris Ann Marie Murnaghan is profiled in York University's Y-File. Published 8 January 2025York U professor champions Indigenous cultural preservationhttps://www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/01/08/york-u-professor-champions-indigenous-cultural-preservation/ Joanne Connauton on […]

Witsuwit'en Yin Tah: Reconnecting to Witsutwit'en History - Restoring Relations with the K'ëgit Totem Pole located in Paris, France

A delegation of Witsuwit’en hereditary chiefs, elders, artists and youth from C’inegh Lhay Yikh (House of Many Eyes) of the Likhsilyu Clan (Small Frog) travelled to Paris, France in the third week of October, 2024 in search of their history and its connection to the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum. In 1938, Kurt Seligmann, […]

Archival Research in Paris in Advance of the Olympics

In June 2024, while the Olympics were being set up across the city of Paris, France, Ann Marie Murnaghan began the archival research for the project. At the Museum of National History (Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle https://www.mnhn.fr/en ), she collected hundreds of images from scrapbooks, publications, letters, and important documents relating to the Kegit Pole (Wit’suwit’en), and […]

Publications

Research The research team has over a dozen-­year relationship doing research with Witsuwit’en elders and community members. Indigenous Children in Canadian Cinema Murnaghan, A.M.F. and T. McCreary. 2024. Indigenous Children in Canadian Cinema: Ethnographic Explorations and National Narratives. In Imagining Young Lives: The Film Landscapes of Global Youth. Edited by S. Aitken and J. Rowlett. […]

Funders & Partners

Collaborators: Wet’suwet’en Language and Culture Society, the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, the Matriarchs of the House of Many Eyes, Birdy Markert, and the Kyah Wiget Education Society Witsuwit'en Language and Culture Society The Office of the Wet'suwet'en Matriarchs of the House of Many Eyes Kyah Wiget Education Society School District No. 54 Funding Old Poles […]

Research Team

Feel free to get in contact with our research team! Quick Links Ann Marie Murnaghan  Dr. Murnaghan is the Principal Investigator for this project, and an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities at York University in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Murnaghan’s research expertise is in archival research and children’s geographies. The co-editor of Children, Nature, […]

People

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. — Henry Ford Quick Links Research Team Partners & Sponsors Connect with York University

Project Summary

One major project of reconciliation and decolonization across the globe is the repatriation of Indigenous cultural artifacts. In Canada, returning stolen, bought, or transferred material culture and heritage has been important to cultural revitalization efforts since the 1970s. In recent years, Indigenous cultural and political resurgence has intensified demands for community access to heritage artifacts. […]

News

Contact

For further details about this project, feel free to reach out with any questions or inquiries. Quick Links How to Reach Us Location York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Researcher Ann Marie Murnaghan amfm@yorku.ca Connect with York University