Finding its way home
THE FIGHT TO RETURN LOUIS RIEL’S WALKING STICK
After his defeat at the decisive Battle of Batoche in 1885, Louis Riel surrendered to the North-West Mounted Police, ending his rebellion against the fledgling Canadian nation.
The militia hired a young livery driver, Edwin “Will” Banbury, to transport the rebel leader downriver to a jail cell in Regina.
According to historians, once they arrived, Riel turned to Banbury, handed over his ornate walking stick and said: “I won’t be needing this anymore.” Indeed, he did not. Riel was hanged for treason at the Regina barracks later that year.
Afraid of being labelled a Métis rebel sympathizer, Banbury sent the stick to Ontario, where it was passed down over several generations and, eventually, donated to the Royal Winnipeg Rifles in the ’ 70s. There, it sat in a case, well- kept but unlabelled, until it was donated to the Manitoba Museum.
Now a University of Saskatchewan law student wants the walking stick returned to the Métis. Jesse Donovan has started an online petition demanding the museum give it back.
“When Canada holds these artifacts, they are being held as the artifacts of a conquered people,” says Donovan, who is Métis. Returning those artifacts, and allowing them to be used and displayed by Métis people in Métis-run facilities, will allow his people to present their side of history, he says. Donovan sees repatriation as an important step in self-determination.
As calls for reconciliation gain ground, more First Nations groups have demanded the return of sacred historical objects from museums and other heritage facilities.
Donovan said the need is more dire when those items are being held by cultural institutions embedded with the military or militias — as many of Riel’s personal effects once were.
About a year ago, Donovan was among those who began a petition to see Riel’s hunting knife, crucifix and poetry book returned to the Métis from the RCMP Heritage Centre in Regina. In September, the RCMP agreed; the items will be returned and stored in a Métis heritage centre still to be constructed.
The walking stick was held and displayed by the Royal Winnipeg Rifles regiment before its donation to the Manitoba Museum was finalized in September.
“Canada needs to pledge to return the items. It can hold on to them until we can provide a secure location, but we want to hear that binding promise,” Donovan said.
The Manitoba Museum said it was amenable to Donovan’s request. According to Roland Sawatzky, the curator of history at the museum, Riel’s walking stick is about a metre tall and was carved from a Diamond willow. It’s twisted and ornate. The round, polished knob is carved with the initials L.R. and B.
Sawatsky said the stick has been featured at the museum as part of the Legacies of Confederation exhibit shown in tandem with the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
“The Métis resistance here at Red River was a huge part of (the history of Confederation) and that walking stick is a wonderful way to tell that story,” he said.
Seema Hollenberg, the director of research collections and exhibitions at the Manitoba Museum, said there are many ways centres like hers can serve repatriation: not all communities have the storage facilities to maintain sensitive or delicate artifacts.
For example, the Manitoba Museum is the custodian of Chief Peguis’ pipe bowl, which is returned to the Peguis First Nation for ceremonial purposes.
Other stories of repatriation often pepper the news.
In 2014, a stunning Chilkat ceremonial blanket was purchased at an auction in Paris so it could be returned to the U’mista Cultural Society and displayed at a museum in Alert Bay, B.C.
However, Susan Rowley, a curator at the Museum of Anthropology and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, says many repatriation efforts remain unpublicized.
“Repatriation happens all the time and many of the discussions about repatriation are confidential. As a result, ( they) only get publicized if communities or individuals to whom they belong ... choose to have that made public.”
Many items of significant historical or ceremonial importance were either purchased or simply stolen from First Nations communities during colonization. It wasn’t uncommon for settlers to walk into a village — seemingly abandoned, but in actuality only temporarily vacated for hunting — and simply take what they found.
“It’s also absolutely the case that there are examples ( like what Donovan) is talking about where the pieces are used as the idea of the spoils of war,” Rowley said.
While it’s true that some delicate repatriated items may not be returned to the sterile environment of a museum, “That’s not really my call as a museum person to make. That is entirely up to the community.”
“A lot of this (concerns) issues of power and so the return is not just a return of the physical, but is the return of power and authority.”