VANCOUVER.- Since the 1980s, the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) has been grappling with how to decolonize its work and repair its relationships with Indigenous communities. The Work of Repair: Redress & Repatriation at the Museum of Vancouver digs into some of these efforts by highlighting three ways the MOV is working towards repair: repatriation, community engagement, and research that reconnects Indigenous belongings to their histories.

Nexwenen Nataghelʔilh is an exhibition within an exhibition exploring the emotional impact of the repatriation of over 60 Tŝilhqot’in ancestral belongings from the MOV collection. The Tŝilhqot’in National Government (TNG) partnered with the MOV to undertake their first repatriation, completed in February 2024—and this work is reflected in the exhibition through film, photography and stories from Tŝilhqot’in leaders, elders and youth.

Knowledge Repatriation is an MOV cultural revitalization initiative that responds to community identified needs. Projects are designed to reintroduce traditional knowledge to host nation communities by bringing participants together with knowledge holders from neighbouring communities. Film clips and objects in this section of The Work of Repair document the work thus far, including harvesting for cedar root basketry, making fish traps from cedar withes, and learning about the maintenance of sea gardens.

From 2021-2024, the MOV participated in Dr. Hannah Turner’s research project, “The Work of Repair,” enabling staff to research older belongings in the collection that had been severed from their histories. Several were successfully reunited with their stories. One example, prominently displayed in this section, is a large Kwakwaka'wakw house model. Once incorrectly attributed to Mungo Martin, it is actually the work of his niece Ellen Neel. Missing its base for several decades, it has been repaired in consultation with family members and reassembled for the first time in decades.

“For change to happen, it must be institution wide. Decolonization requires us to reconsider how we do our daily work, and to examine how we can tear down barriers to access. Through this exhibition we demonstrate how understanding our history as an institution, and how undertaking research to improve collections documentation, reconnects belongings to community members. This, in turn, can lead to repatriation and the repair of relationships. Supported by our community engagement activity, we open the doors for ongoing relationships based upon trust and respect.” —Sharon Fortney, Senior Curator of Indigenous Collections, Engagement & Repatriation, MOV