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| Respecting Our Ancestors | |||||||||
| End of Mourning Ceremony | |||||||||
| Documentaries | |||||||||
| Contact and Contributions | |||||||||
BUTTERFLY DESIGN
The idea of the butterfly was brought to our attention by the
Late Margaret Hewer. The butterfly represents the messenger
of the departed souls. It is also said to be a symbol of the traveling
Spirits, those departed and misplaced that are wandering about.
The design was created by the Late Brad Collinson and adopted
by our committee as our logo.
SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INDIAN
In 2002, when a Haida delegation traveled to New York to repatriate our ancestors from the American Museum of Natural History, we also visited the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) branch at the George Gustav Heye Centre in New York City, and the NMAI Cultural Resource Centre in Washington DC to view Haida treasures held in their collection. There are over 1500 pieces attributed to the Haida held in their collections. We were thrilled to see a few hundred, of which many were danced later that day during a ceremony with museum staff.
Since then, Haida community curators from Skidegate, Old Massett and Alaska have worked with the NMAI on the Haida component of an exhibition and publication called Listening to Our Ancestors, which opened in February of 2005, and features twelve native communities from the pacific northwest coast.
SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN INDIAN
