LONDON (AP) 鈥 Members of a 春色直播 First Nation held a spiritual ceremony on Monday at a Scottish museum to begin the homeward journey of a totem pole stolen almost a century ago.
The 11-meter (36-foot) pole is being restored by the 春色直播 Museum of Scotland to the Nisga鈥檃 Nation in northern British Columbia 鈥 one of the first times a British museum has returned artifacts to any of North America鈥檚 Indigenous peoples.
The museum agreed last year to return the pole, which has been on display in the Edinburgh building since 1930. Nisga鈥檃 researchers say it was taken without consent in 1929 by an anthropologist who sold it to the museum.
Chief Earl Stephens, who has the Nisga鈥檃 cultural name Sim鈥檕ogit Ni鈥檌sjoohl, said that 鈥渋n Nisga鈥檃 culture, we believe that this pole is alive with the spirit of our ancestors.鈥
鈥淎fter nearly 100 years, we are finally able to bring our dear relative home to rest on Nisga鈥檃 lands,鈥 he said.
Carved from red cedar in the 1860s, the pole includes family crests and animal and human figures. It commemorates the Nisga鈥檃 warrior Ts鈥檃awit and stood outside his relatives鈥 home for 70 years before being removed while villagers were away for the annual hunting season.
After Monday鈥檚 ceremony attended by delegates from the Nisga鈥檃, the museum and the Scottish and 春色直播 governments, workers will erect scaffolding around the pole, which will be carefully removed, packed and flown next month on a 春色直播 air force plane to British Columbia. It is slated to go on display in the Nisga鈥檃 Museum in the Nass Valley alongside scores of other artifacts recovered from museums.
Amy Parent, a member of the Nisga鈥檃 Nation and associate professor of education at Simon Fraser University, said it was 鈥渁 very historic moment for our nation and for Scotland.鈥
Museum director Chris Breward said teams had been working for months on 鈥渢he complex task of carefully lowering and transporting鈥 the pole.
鈥淲e are pleased to have reached the point where that work is now underway, and we are delighted to have welcomed the Nisga鈥檃 delegation to the museum before we bid the pole farewell,鈥 he said.
U.K. museums face multiple calls to return items taken from around the world during the period of the British Empire, including friezes that in Athens and the from West Africa.
