Gilbert Whiteduck
June 29, 2011
Kitigan Zibi

"We knew the spirits were with us."

Gilbert Whiteduck, Anishinabe

To succeed in repatriating their ancestors’ remains to their community requires persistence, finesse and long struggles with museum officials. When the time comes to gently place the bones in the handmade birch boxes, everyone talks softly. Time stops just long enough to share the pride of having achieved this, with respect, and the very strong feeling of having fulfilled a duty towards the elders. With a small group of women and men, Gilbert Whiteduck experienced one of these exceptional moments.

Indoors. Close shot of Gilbert Whiteduck sitting at a desk.

Gilbert Whiteduck

I think a visitor to, to an exhibit needs to know that we have our own creation stories. We were here since time immemorial. Obviously, we weren’t necessarily here when the Ice Age occurred, you know, but we did move in into these territories and then used them for at least 15 or 20 thousand years. And, sometimes, people ask how you know that. Well, and this may have been shared with you, back in 2005, we, we undertook a repatriation of ancient human remains and all that, which was a battle in itself, ‘cause the museum would not release these ancient human remains, which were dated between four and six thousand years. Because, of course, the museum was saying that we could not connect a modern day community to the remains. We couldn’t show. And our argument was that we didn’t have to, we knew they were Indigenous to the land. We had a responsibility to make sure that they will be reburied. Now, there’s a whole story behind how all of this came to be, this repatriation. But it was significant, ‘cause in the end we were able… In the end, in the end of the repatriation, what occurred is that the museum was saying, “No, no, no we’re not”. And my point to them had been whatever you decide, we’re coming here on June 21st, 2005, Aboriginal Day. If you’re not ready, and we’ve had made all of our boxes, birchbark boxes, and beaver pelts and cedar. If you’re not ready, we are piling these hundred boxes on Laurier Street in Hull. And I told them, “We’re staying one hour, one day, one month, one year, ten years, whatever.”

There were four of us who... We were now, we couldn’t back out of it now, we were committed. We thought we may have to do it, so we were going to give up our lives, literally, give up whatever we were doing in our jobs, and just go on, do it. It was a huge commitment. But we knew, we knew from the moment, the first time the cabinets were opened and we saw these human remains. Getting that it’s a story on its own. We knew, we knew that there was no turning back. That we could not allow human remains, and the burial artefacts to remain there, and the fight was on, the fight was on. But that was significant. It was significant for all those that were involved and, and for the community.

And it was around the same time that the cultural center, here, gets built, it’s around the same time that our history books, Since Time Immemorial, the history of Anishinabeg gets written. So it’s a reappropriation, we take back what belongs to us. We write our own history. It’s our history. We try to express it through the cultural center, we bring back the, the remains of these Indigenous people that were taken from, ripped from the soil to be, to be studied by scientists who believed that it would be a good thing for humanity. ‘Cause that was the argument, that it was a good thing for humanity, for them to study it. And us, taking ‘em back and rebury them would be, would be, uh, not helpful to that scientific process. What’s your question, again?

Interviewer

What do you want to, to show to our next exhibition? But we, yesterday, we go to that site where you reburied the, the artefacts and the, the bones. And, uh, it’s a really interesting story, all you had to do and how it was complicated for you to take back something from your own nation.

Gilbert Whiteduck

Yes, well, we had, we had a responsibility. Let me just give you one more part of that. ‘Cause where it started and how it led to, it’s the story on its own. On the day, on the day, once the museum agreed, that everything would return over to us, we set the day. It was a day, a day or two before Aboriginal Day. We had gone down and we had prepared all the boxes, of course. We were ready. All the birchbark boxes and how we were going to do this. We didn’t really know how they were presenting us with the human remains, was it full skeletons, parts of skeletons? Anyhow. But we knew that most of what we call the bundling, the bringing of the bones, needed to be done by women. So that was mostly women that day, about a dozen women. And there were two or three of us, men that were also. We did it, we did it together.

And, we were, we were in a room, at the museum. And, we, we, of course, they are giving those human remains, you know you are touching something that has so much, so much significance, along with the burial artefacts, all kinds of beautiful stuff. Very ancient. And so you are taking from these boxes, you know the head, the arm, the ribs and you’re trying to place them carefully into the box, to be very respectful. And then using cedar as a medicine, as one of our medicines. And, and it was very interesting. It took us a whole day to do that. It was a long process. And, and you know. It was done, and I remember stopping a few times, and try to listen, and everybody was talking softly. There was a level of respect, I…you know. Because we had work so hard to try to achieve that, also we were reaching a pinnacle, we were reaching the top.

And I remember when we were all done. And for whatever reason that day, I worn a black shirt. No reason, just took a black shirt and put on a black shirt. And we’re all done, and so the boxes are all ready, we look at each other, nobody is saying anything. I remember looking at myself, and of course, because I’ve been dealing with the bones all day, I had all the dust of the bones on my shirt. It was a moment, a moment of… There has never been that kind of moment in my life, and I think there will never be again. A moment, and we all looked at each other. A moment of connection, that we had filled, we had fulfilled our responsibility, we had fulfilled the teachings and the kind of things that had been passed on, our responsibility, that our Elders, our ancestors tried to pass on to the best of our abilities. We had fulfilled that. It was like a moment, and it was gone. It was… unique, and we all left there very tired. Like, “Why are we so tired? We shouldn’t be that tired.” It, it was just unbelievable. It was just unbelievable. And, and we knew that the spirits, the spirits were, were strong with us. We, we, we, we sensed it. You know. It’s, it’s not tangible, of course, but you feel it.

Jean Nicolas
August 14, 2011
Cacouna

"We found a bark bundle."

Jean Nicolas, Wolastoq

Jean Nicolas' cousin wanted to build a garage near the old chapel in Tadoussac. While digging, he discovered bark in which the bones of an Indigenous man rested with his stone arrowheads and arch. The people from the university came, excavated and left with the stone arrowheads, the arch and the bones. Jean and his cousin never heard from them again.

Interview with Jean Nicolas. A picture of him graces the sound of his voice.

Jean Nicolas

What they found there, the cave that was found in Cacouna, did they mention this to you?

Interviewers

No!

Jean Nicolas

No? Okay! We, we had some sort of thing hollowed-out by the Indians, something like this that was found. And in this thing, three 14-foot canoes could fit. So, there’s, and it was a star with a, a star with a broken stem, the one on the left. That one from, yeah, that one on the left. The one that was broken indicated that there was a cave.

So, when they came to me, they said, “Jean, did you know that they discovered a cave on the cape, behind the dry dock of the great Cacouna?” Well, that’s what it was, it was a dry dock, where there's a silo and everything. They found a cave there. Then, there was a conference at the Huron village. Oh! Well, I said, “I'm going. Hey! I'm going to go. Oh! I'm going!” Pauline said, “You're not going there.” “Well, I'm going to go.” I said. Because I know who found it, the cave in the Saguenay. I'm going! I don’t want to hear any lies from them. Oh! And then, they provide explainations.

Around four o'clock, I said, “When can we ask questions?“ I said, “You, uh... He was in charge of the cave so that no one would go digging in it, and all. It came from Laval University.” I said, “Will it be like the cave below Gideon Falls? Where government people broke everything, making it such that we can no longer fit a 14-foot canoe, and where you took everything that was inside it. And it's been protected for 400 years now. Shouldn’t you have assisted there?” Here, I gave him some details. He said, “I haven’t heard.” I said, "Let me tell you then.” I said, “The boat that was used is called the Samon. And it's the government boat I went to get in Malbaie to bring it here to take you to the cave.” But it wasn't the same guy, but he knew about it.

Now, I said, “Uh, being young, I know there's still a cave there. But my father, before he died, during his last moments of life, a year, maybe a year before, 18 months, uh, we went to Saguenay with an engine. A canoe, a freighter eh. And then he showed me the star. And he made me, he made me, he said before leaving, “Bring some fret scissors and a hammer.” I said, “What kind of hammer?” He said, “No less than five pounds.” All right. You don't say anything. You follow him. Oh! Yeah! He's standing back there, with the rope, like that, in a rowboat. And me, I'm behind, I'm leading the engine. So, he says, “Uh, we're almost there.” Huh! I said, “Dad, there's a star here. There's a cave not far away.” Well he says, “That's what you're going to do here today. I'll show you the cave. After you’ve seen the cave, you’ll climb the ladder that we’ll make, and you'll remove the star with your fret scissors and your hammer.”

Interviewer

Remove it?

Jean Nicolas

Yes!

Interviewer

What for?

Jean Nicolas

So that no one touches it. Well, that’s when I understood that maybe there were also some of his descendants who were buried nearby there, or in the cave. Because we would go camping there. We always said camping eh, when we were young, and, uh, father would say, “Don’t follow me.” So, he would go repair the graves of the Indians who had drowned in the Saguenay. A little later, well, he showed it to me. That's what I was talking about last summer, to show this to my brother. Well this will be lost.

Interviewer

Well, yes, because indeed, the guy from the university, he said, “Oh! We found bodies, and we found this and that…” So he’s disturbing everything, really?

Jean Nicolas

Yes. And at one point, one of my cousins built himself a garage in Tadoussac, by the old chapel, where it burned. Then we found a bunch of bark. It was an Indian who was buried in the bark. A man who in those days was named Lévesque. I don't know if you know him. He was also at Laval University.

Interviewer

Okay!

Jean Nicolas

Then, uh, I lost, uh, I got one dollar a day...

That's what, well, uh, Mr. Lévesque, we had one dollar a day, there were four of us, and we lost our salary for two months, waiting for everything to be searched, and everything. And when we reopened the bark, the guy had all his stone points, and, uh, his, his bow was still there, and he had hair on his skull.

Interviewer

Oh! Yeah?

Jean Nicolas

Yeah! He had been preserved in the bark.

Interviewer

Did they keep it? Did they send it to the museum?

Jean Nicolas

They took off with it, and we never heard from them again. And then, they started searching the area.

Interviewer

And they never ask you for anything then?

Jean Nicolas

No. They got there, and blocked off the area, and, even my cousin, had to use a passageway to get to his house. He was angry. He said, “Guys, if you see anything else like that, don’t say a damn word.”