NOTE: An update on this topic can be viewed through the link at top left.

Each year a theme is for the Pow Wow event is chosen by the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn Traditional Pow-Wow Committee Members. For the year 2003 the theme was the Repatriation of Algonquin Ancestral Remains. A theme is chosen to bring light to certain issues of importance and to share that information with the public and community members. The Committee hopes to make a positive contribution to the repatriation efforts by inviting and assisting in uniting all Algonquins and the general public.

The Canadian Museum of Civilization has been in possession of ancient human remains for decades. Nestled into metal filing cabinets lay hundreds of ancient human remains likely those of our Algonquin ancestors. They lay without ceremony far from the land in which they were once carefully interred.

The remains can not rest as they were disturbed and will remain so until they are returned to their descendants for repatriation to the lands they roamed so long ago. Peacefully at rest for centuries they never suspected they would be disturbed, dug up, removed, catalogued and placed on shelves; forgotten souls of peoples long departed.

As late as the 1960’s, non-Algonquin archaeologists and others have removed remains from numerous burial sites within Algonquin traditional territory. These remains are now in the possession of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Media attention has escalated as scientists consider the importance of these human remains, some over 6,000 years old. Media coverage has also increased due to the Algonquin Nation’s request that the museum return all Algonquin ancestral remains so they make be taken care of by Algonquins.

On January 15, 2003, members of the Kitigan Zibi First Nation formally petitioned the Canadian Museum of Civilization to hand over all human remains collected from Ottawa Valley burial sites. The museum has agreed to negotiate the return of some bones taken from Algonquin burial grounds, but it appears that the origin of older bones, including those taken from Morrison Island, will be contested by the museum. Museum scientists state the bones are too old to enable a ‘genetic link’ to modern Algonquins. Two American’s, geneticist, Douglas Wallace and paleo-archaeologist, Dennis Stanford, believe the Morrison Island bones are of immense value and want these older bones preserved for scientific study.

The President of the museum will only agree to returning the burial remains to a united group of Algonquins and only after it is proven the remains are indeed Algonquin. Kitigan Zibi and Pikwàkanagàn have met to discuss working together to address the issues raised by museum staff in an effort to achieve the repatriation of the Algonquin ancestral remains.

The Algonquins believe they have lived on this land for ‘time immemorial’ and want the return of all human remains collected from the Ottawa Valley burial sites, regardless of their age. These remains are not simply bones to be catalogued and filed. These remains are Algonquin ancestors, dug up from their final resting place and now kept in filing cabinets.

All human remains are sacred and deserve respect and reverence. None are more deserving of this respect than the Algonquin Ancestral Remains in those cold grey cabinets housed in the back rooms of the museum.