Nuyumbalees Cultural Center
The Nuyumbalees Cultural Center is a museum and cultural center in Cape Mudge on Quadra Island in western Canada, between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
The 1979 Kwagiulth Museum and Cultural Center opened museum and cultural center, today Nuyumbalees Cultural Center , represents the culture of officially Cape Mudge designated Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation . Nuyumbalees means beginning , which refers to the fact that the cultural treasures kidnapped by ethnologists and art dealers have been brought back here. The center was established by the Nuyumbalees Society founded by the Traditional Chief in 1975 .
She negotiated with several museums, among them the National Museum of Man in Ottawa , the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the return of the ceremonial objects, especially those important for the potlatch . In addition there were the ceremonial items of the chiefs ( regalia ). After the establishment of the center and training in those responsible for its safekeeping, preservation and exhibition, the museum was opened in February 1979. After renovation work, the new opening took place on May 13, 2007.
history
In 1911 the National Museum of Australia began negotiations with the art dealer Frank A. Wilkes. It wanted to acquire 56 artifacts from the Indians of the Pacific Northwest Coast. In 1910 and 1911 the Australian American John Stacey tried to capitalize on the excitement for Northwest Coast culture by putting together a performance group from the Southern Kwakwaka'wakw . The Victoria Daily Times reported the departure of the group on February 25, 1911 , carrying totem poles and canoes, weapons and clothes, baskets and masks. After that they were the first group of their kind to visit Australia. But the visit to Australia and New Zealand ended in a financial fiasco, and Wilkes had to sell numerous cult objects in order to finance the return trip. The National Museum of Australia received the Wilkes Collection, later the Cape Mudge Collection , through Stacey . Most of it came from Quadra Island.
In the 1980s, two totem poles and three masks (eagle, bear and echo) were returned. The Hunt family, one of the most respected of the Kwakwaka'wakw, offered to give the museum in return. Calvin Hunt, a grandson of Traditional Chief Mungo Martin , known as the “Carver of the Century” , donated two other works to the museum. The masks were initially kept by the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa .
A few years ago, petroglyphs were transferred to the cultural center for protection, and there are more in the Lower Gallery .
At the cultural center there is another building which provides space for artists, workshops and cultural education, the K w ik w i Gillas Cultural Education Center .
See also
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ People of the Cedar / Le peuple du Cèdre , exhibition catalog of the National Museum of Australia, March 2 to May 28, 2006, Canberra 2006, pp. 18f.
Coordinates: 50 ° 1 ′ 7 " N , 125 ° 11 ′ 47.4" W.