The Royal BC Museum’s Indigenous Collections and Repatriation department, or ICAR, oversees all of the exhibits in the First Peoples Gallery at the museum.
Founded in January of 2017, the department is continuing its work with the Indigenous Repatriation Handbook, and is now digitizing the book, for easier access online.
Lou-Ann Neel is the acting head of the Royal BC Museum’s ICAR department.
“We’re also working more closely with communities to tell their repatriation stories,” says Neel.
“We’ll be talking with communities and asking, ‘which of these cultural treasures are you OK still having on display, and how would you like to tell the story of that particular treasure?'” adds Neal.
ICAR is also re-labeling and digitizing the First Nation collection.
“Many of our displays still contain names that we used back in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, so we’re updating all of those,” says Neal.
Veronica Cooper has more about the ICAR department in this episode of This Week in History.
This Week In History is sponsored by the Royal BC Museum
Veronica Cooper
