Naamiwan's Drum: The Story of a Contested Repatriation of Anishinaabe Artefacts
© 2016
Naamiwan’s Drum follows the story of a famous Ojibwe medicine man, his gifted grandson, and remarkable water drum. This drum, and forty other artefacts, were given away by a Canadian museum to an American Anishinaabe group that had no family or community connections to the collection. Many years passed before the drum was returned to the family and only about half of the artefacts were ever returned to the museum.
Maureen Matthews takes us through this astonishing set of events from multiple perspectives, exploring community and museum viewpoints, visiting the ceremonial group leader in Wisconsin, and finally looking back from the point of view of the drum. The book contains a powerful Anishinaabe interpretive perspective on repatriation and on anthropology itself. Containing fourteen beautiful colour illustrations, Naamiwan’s Drum is a compelling account of repatriation as well as a cautionary tale for museum professionals.
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 356 pages
- Illustrations: 14
- Dimensions: 7.0in x 0.9in x 10.0in
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Reviews
‘What this book does excellently is to uncover in subtle ways how objects are actors in the drama of repatriation whether one takes First Nations perspective or not.’
Max Carocci
Transmotion Journal vol 4:01:2018‘This work will no doubt become a standard by which repatriation and perhaps even cultural and community studies are judged.’
Patricia Harms
The Canadian Journal of Native Studies vol 37:02:2017"Naamiwan’s Drum is a highly rewarding read. Maureen Matthews tells a very compelling, well-grounded, and beautifully written story. This is a subtle, rich, and complex first-rate investigation of repatriation that raises concerns about the agency of objects, their makers and users."
Janet Catherine Berlo, Department of Art and Art History, University of Rochester"Naamiwan’s Drum advances our understanding of a number of important topics including repatriation, Anishanaabeg language use, anthropology and material cultural studies."
Susan Rowley, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia and Curator of Public Archaeology, Museum of Anthropology"Maureen Matthews’ work is a major contribution to the field. It is rare to find someone who can successfully bridge linguistics, anthropological literature, museums and storytelling."
Gwyneira Isaac, Curator of North American Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution -
Author Information
Maureen Matthews is Curator of Ethnology at the Manitoba Museum as well as an adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba. -
Table of contents
MAPS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
COLOUR PLATES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
Chapter 2 OMISHOOSH: Visit to the Museum
Chapter 3 ANIMACY: Linguistic Considerations
Chapter 4 DEWE’IGAN: Repatriation
Chapter 5 PERSONHOOD: Wiikan and Artefact
Chapter 6 THREE FIRES MIDEWIWIN LODGE: Ojibwe Advocacy and Revitalization
Chapter 7 REPATRIATION: Cultural Rights and the Construction of Meaning
Chapter 8 NELSON OWEN: Mitigwakik Homecoming
Chapter 9 AGENCY AND ARTEFACTS: New Theoretical Approaches
Chapter 10 REPATRIATING AGENCY: An Agency Analysis of Repatriation
APPENDIX A: TIME LINE
APPENDIX B: OJIBWE LANGUAGE NOTES
APPENDIX C: OJIBWE GLOSSARY
REFERENCES CITED
END NOTES
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Prizes
Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction awarded by the Manitoba Book Awards
- Winner in 2017Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book awarded by the Manitoba Book Awards
- Short-listed in 2017John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer awarded by the Manitoba Book Awards
- Short-listed in 2017McNally Robinson Book of the Year awarded by the Manitoba Book Awards
- Short-listed in 2017 -
Subjects and Courses
