Belonging(s): “A close relationship among a group and personal or public effects”

“Asco wequassinummis, neetompooag” (Hello my friends)!

A Story of Rematriation What does rematriation mean? Return to the Sacred Mother, restoring balance, returning to a traditional way of life, living with care and honor of Mother Earth-Nuhkasahkee. It is continuation of our people, sustaining our lifeways, using our language, being in relationship with All Creation and Nuwômaneetônk Nutônksooag, All our Beloved Relations.

As a matrilineal people, the understanding of the leadership, kinship, and nurturing of Indigenous women, those who came before us, our mothers-nukhasooag, grandmothers-nukoomasooag, our great grandmothers-mishinukoomasooag, our ancestors -nuttuonggoonog, all the grandmothers who lead our nation, villages, clans, and families. They are our teachers. They carry wisdom and knowledge. They inspire the next generations and help our communities heal. Each day, we work to follow in the footsteps of our grandmothers. They understand what our communities need. They lead us toward resiliency, sustainability, continuation, balance, and healing. They teach respect for All of our Relations and their gifts. They connect us to our traditional ways of knowing.

It is known that through conquest, colonization, genocide, warfare, land dispossession, displacement, and forced assimilative practices such as enslavement, boarding, religious & industrial schools, foster care, adoption, laws, and other systems of erasure, oppression, and detribalization that if you destroy families, you destroy communities, nations, and cultural and ecological knowledge. The goal was eradication of Indigenous people, families, and nations. It was done by the disrespect of our female leaders, sauksquaooag, the violence against Indigenous women, the stealing of our women and girls. This violence is represented today in the MMIWG2S (Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirits) campaign. Family members paint red hands over their mouths to represent the family members and other MMIWG2S that have been silenced. On May 5th, people wear red dresses or red in honor of those lost. People also wear orange on September 30th to honor and remember the children stolen from families and taken to boarding, industrial and religious schools, especially those who never returned. For those that returned to create space for truth telling and reconcile the past. Rematriation is the work of healing from all of the historical and intergenerational trauma that has befallen our communities.

As a museum leader, it is important that we think like the grandmothers that came before us, ensuring the continuation of our traditional ecological knowledge, our history, culture, oral memories, language, and spirituality to ensure we continue to pass this forward for the next seven generations to come. The teachings of our ancestors guide us and ensure we carry forth the values of our People.

With these values in mind, we have a story to tell that spans over 9 years. On a cold, gray winter day, there was a knock on the door, two strangers were there holding out a beautiful, feathered Belonging (decolonizing the words object/artifact) that appeared to be a yoke. It was not from our area, possibly South America. They stated, they didn’t feel right having it in their home and wanted us to take it or they were going to throw it away. We knew it belonged to Indigenous peoples but not who specifically.

Our tiny staff researched online and found a similar belonging which seemed to be a ceremonial headpiece and knew it belonged to an Indigenous community in Brazil. We decided our responsibility was to care for the belonging as we would hope others would care for our cultural, ancestral, and ceremonial belongings. With words of prayer, we blessed this important ceremonial item and preceded to care for and store it until the day we would learn of the specific community it belonged to and be able to return the belonging to its community never knowing how or when that would be possible.

Many years go by and on March 3-5, 2024, we attended a convening at Tufts University that included Tufts faculty and staff, local Indigenous women representing the Narragansett, Aquinnah Wampanoag, and Nipmuc Nations and four Indigenous women from four communities in Brazil. One was an artist, Tamikuã whose artwork was exhibited at Tufts the previous fall sharing her art, architecture, and activism. Tamikuã Txihi (Pataxó) born in PauBrasil and belongs to the Pataxó nation, whose communities are located between the municipalities of Pau-Brasil, Itaju do Colônia, and Camacã, and in Camamu, south of Bahia. Tamikuã works as an artist, curator, and activist for Indigenous rights and environmental protection.

The other three were leaders of Indigenous museums or arts organizations in Brazil. Fernanda Kaingáng, of the Kaingáng people is the first Indigenous leader of the Indigenous Museum in Rio de Janeiro. Larissa Ye’padiho Mota Duarte is an Indigenous artist and community leader from the Tukano people. Clarice Pankararu (Pankararu) is an Exhibition Program Supervisor and Cultural Programming, Museum of Indigenous Cultures of São Paulo, President of the Indigenous Association SOS Pankararu Indigenous community, Real Parque São Paulo.

We spent time getting to know a bit about each person in attendance.

As part of the convening, we toured the Tufts Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Peabody Essex Museum. There were lots of discussions with translators regarding representation of Indigenous cultures in colonial institutions. Even when those museums are trying, it is still a challenge as the representation is still from a colonial curator perspective. The women from Brazil spoke of how at home they felt at the Native American Indian Center of Boston where we participated in a welcome ceremony, ate together, toured the facility, met the artist-in-residence, and closed, in a good way, with ceremony. It was important to help them feel connected, welcome, and at home. Unfortunately, on the second day, they had a devastating loss from their community and being far from home was difficult during this sad time. Lots of hugs and kind words were shared and those most effected took some time to adjust to this tragic news.

The next day, the third day of the convening, they were coming to Tomaquag Museum. Our team prepared for them, creating a warm welcome with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, pumpkin and sunflowers seeds, cranberry tea and freshly made cranberry cornbread. We greeted them with a Welcome Song and introductions in our Narragansett language. Through the translator, we shared our history, culture, community knowledge, and arts or cultural expression. We shared how ‘we are still here’ despite conquest, colonization, land dispossession, forced assimilation and erasure strategies employed to eradicate us. We gave tours of the museum, our Indigenous Empowerment Center, Education department, Archives & Collections, Marketing & Media, and Administration and introduced the convening group to our Tomaquag team. Our Education Manager noticed Tamikuã was wearing a traditional headpiece and without knowing about the community loss nor about the Belonging we were holding for safe keeping, asked her about it.

“She was standing just inside the room with this beautiful headpiece. I felt it had great significance but did not know what. Wanting to be respectful, I dared to ask what it represented, and she graciously shared her response through an interpreter. I was honored to have had the opportunity to learn of another Indigenous culture from the first-person perspective.” shared Chrystal Baker (Narragansett).

After the behind-the-scenes tour, I asked Anthony Belz our Collections & Archives Manager to bring down the ceremonial headpiece we wanted to show them with the hopes they could help us connect it to the correct community.

I told them the story of how this belonging came to us before opening the box in front of our guests from Brazil, the Tufts team, and local Indigenous women. As we opened the protective coverings, there was stunned silence, awe-filled expressions, exclamations of beauty of this feathered headdress, and tears of wonder and gratitude.

Tamikuã, Fernanda, Clarice & Larissa shared their thoughts and express the beauty and connection to this Belonging. They speak to the community it may belong to from the type of knots used in weaving the feathers together. We learned each community has different knotting techniques. They translated it as a feather crown worn in ceremony for healing and protection. Each of us shared words regarding this experience. How it impacted us, the emotions were flowing. Tamikuã and Fernanda led us in ceremonial songs and dances from their communities. I shared a prayer in Narragansett and sang Kunashaônk, which is a song that connects us to our ancestors.

“Rematriation is decolonial and decolonizing. To acknowledge the power and leadership of women, especially in Indigenous communities, confronts the limitations which colonial settler societies have always attempted to impose. Rematriation isn’t just good for Indigenous communities. It benefits everyone. Rematriation promotes an Indigenous ethic of respect for all genders and challenges Eurocentric notions that vilify “the feminine.” shared Pamela Ellis, Hassinamisco Nipmuc Elder.

Pamela Ellis and Lorén M. Spears. Courtesy of Lorén M. Spears.

We discussed the responsibility we felt to care for this sacred belonging and how we were blessed and thankful to connect it to its community. Through the discussion, we learned that Fernanda, by a stroke of luck, had the credentials to bring this ceremonial belonging into Brazil. She told us we couldn’t have mailed, brought ourselves, or sent it with anyone else. As the Director of the Indigenous Museum in Rio de Janeiro she is able to bring in items made from natural resources. Although we never accessioned this item into our collection, we created a document to note the change of stewardship of this belonging which is part of the Rematriation process. You may ask why not repatriation?

“Rematriation to me is the beginning of a healing journey. So much of our lifeways have been altered by settler colonialism and when we have the opportunity to shift that harm, we give ourselves an opportunity to heal. There is a power and beauty in practicing rematriation within our own nations especially those of us who come from traditionally matrilineal cultures where in the practice of rematriation we are making purposeful decisions to center our own values, beliefs and honor our ways of being.” Samantha Cullen-Fry, (Narragansett), Tomaquag’s Indigenous Empowerment Manager.

We closed out the Ceremony of Rematriation with a Round Dance also known as a Unity Dance. This was a full circle moment. Women supporting women. Women continuing culture, strengthening community, honoring ancestors, expressing traditional ecological knowledge, and understanding the importance of Rematriation.

Why rematriation instead of repatriation?

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was put into place to oversee the return of Native American remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony to tribal communities. It was trying to interrupt scientists, archeologists, museum professionals, federal agencies and collectors from desecrating burial grounds and unearthing human remains and funerary items to be scientifically studied, curated and exhibited.

However, NAGPRA is only enforced by the U.S. federal government when institutions and federal agencies utilize federal funding. It also addresses trafficking of these items by individuals. It is difficult to enforce. It only pertains to the United States and not across the Americas nor to rest of the world. It is instituted and enforced by the settler colonial power. Although extremely important is limited in scope, vision, expectation, and enforcement.

Rematriation is the connection to place, sovereignty (not just political, economic, cultural, and food sovereignty but also sovereignty of the mind, body, and spirit), continuation and reclamation of Indigenous knowledges, living in balance, walking in beauty, listening and adhering to the ancestral teachings, and ensuring next generations have access to these lifeways, and rematriation is disrupting settler colonialism by uplifting our sacred women and understanding our place on the Earth Mother and within the celestials. We are of this place. We must care for it. We must honor the teachings. Returning the ceremonial feather head piece to it rightful community is part of our healing, it is respecting ecological knowledge, it is honoring the sacred Mother, and continuing traditional lifeways, and living with care and honor of Mother Earth-Nuhkasahkee. It is being in relationship with All Creation and Nuwômaneetônk Nutônksooag, All our Beloved Relations.

Kutaputush, Aquené, kah Noonantam,

Thanks, Peace & Blessings,

Lorén Spears, Narragansett Citizen & Executive Director Tomaquag Museum

To learn more:

https://rematriation.com/ (https://www.bia.gov/service/nagpra)

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/archeology/napgra.htm

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