Sacred first nations artifact finds its way back home
Rock engraved with wildlife images returned to Interior community
A six- tonne boulder covered in aboriginal engravings is finally being returned to the B. C. Interior, bringing closure to a first nations community whose territory it was taken from nearly 90 years ago.
“It was taken during a time when we didn’t have a say and we had no rights, but now times are changing and we can help undo the wrongs of the past,” said Phyllis Webstad, a member of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation, who is coordinating the repatriation. “It’s healing for us.”
The petroglyph- covered rock, which is carved with images of serpents, deer and elk, was uncovered along the Fraser River by a gold prospector in 1925, and moved to Vancouver’s Stanley Park a year later. The boulder, which is 1.5 metres ( five feet) long and 1.2 metres ( four feet) wide, was dragged 914 metres from the river by a team of 10 horses and, after an eight- week journey to Vancouver was placed near the park’s totem poles.
A rash of vandalism in Stanley Park in the early 1990s prompted the park board to move the rock to the Museum of Vancouver in 1992, where it sat until Tuesday. The rock was transported back to Churn Creek, a community located about 60 kilometres southeast of Williams Lake, after a twoyear repatriation effort.
Joan Seidl, director of collections and exhibitions at the museum, joined the organization in 1992 and recalls when the rock first arrived.
“I can remember being amazed at seeing these men heave this giant rock through the building, and wondering about its story,” she said.
The rock sat undisturbed in the museum’s interior courtyard for 18 years until University of B. C. anthropology professor Bruce Miller approached the museum’s collections committee in 2010 to discuss repatriation. “We’d obviously gone into it looking to find out which was the most appropriate first nation to return it to,” said Seidl. “In our minds, we made a decision: If this could work, we’d like it to work.”
The rock’s 500- year- old engravings, which are highly sacred, were connected to the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation of Churn Creek. In August 2011, Seidl met with members of the band to visit the exact location where the rock stood before 1926.
“I didn’t think it would be possible [ to locate the spot] in such a giant landscape, but I became completely convinced after we held these historical photos up,” she said. “It was one of the best days at work I’ve ever had.”
On Tuesday, industrial movers arrived early at the museum with overhead cranes and forklifts to remove the rock from the courtyard and take it back to the Interior.
The artifact will not be returning to its original location due to concerns about its safety. Instead, it will find a new home upriver in the Churn Creek Protected Area, where it will be accessible to the public.
On Wednesday, th e Stswecem’c Xgat’tem introduced its community’s youth to the artifact with sacred ceremonies and a feast.
“When you think about the younger generation, they don’t know the history of our people,” said Chief Hank Adam. “It’s a good chance for us to use that as part of teaching them and passing some of that knowledge back down,” he said.