After 93 years in Scotland, the Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole has officially returned to Lax̱g̱alts’ap, a village of the Nisg̱a’a Nation in what is known as British Columbia’s Nass Valley. The memorial pole was stolen from the nearby Ank’idaa village in 1929 by Canadian anthropologist Marius Barbeau, who then sold it to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, then called the Royal Museum of Scotland. The institution agreed to the return of the Memorial Pole in 2022 following a visit from the Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government delegation.
“In Nisg̱a’a culture, we believe that this pole is alive with the spirit of our ancestors,” Sim’oogit Ni’isjoohl (Chief Earl Stephens) shared in a statement. “After nearly 100 years, we are finally able to bring our dear relative home to rest on Nisg̱a’a lands. It means so much for us to have the Ni’isjoohl memorial pole returned to us, so that we can connect our family, nation and our future generations with our living history.”
The Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government delegation conducted a closed spiritual ceremony to prepare the pole for its journey on August 28. It was flown to Terrace in British Columbia by the Royal Canadian Air Force on September 24, and was escorted to Lax̱g̱alts’ap through a road procession. It arrived at the Nisg̱a’a Museum on September 29 to an enthusiastic welcoming ceremony and feast with hundreds of attendees, including Nisg̱a’a community members, representatives from the National Museum of Scotland, and Canadian politicians. The pole was raised inside of the museum on October 3.
The wooden pole was commissioned in 1860 by House of Ni’isjoohl matriarch ‘Ntsitskaos (Joanna Moody) as a memorial to the late Ts’wawit, a family member and warrior who was slated to become the next chief before he was killed while protecting his family. Nisg̱a’a master carver Oyee Tait and his assistant, Gwanes, crafted the 37-foot-tall pole almost entirely from a single piece of red cedar, except for the topmost removable “hat.”
The Ni’isjoohl Memorial Pole stood in the Edinburgh museum for 93 years. Sigidimnak’ Noxs Ts’aawit (Amy Parent), a Nisg̱a’a scholar and House of Ni’isjoohl member, discovered in her research that a Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government delegation visited the museum in 1991 to request the return of the ancestral pole, but the museum claimed that it was too fragile to be moved. However, the pole had once been relocated within the institution during a renovation, Parent said.
In 2000, the Nisg̱a’a Nation was officially afforded the right to self-governance and had its land ownership legitimized by the Canadian government. A clause in the recognition agreement acknowledged the necessary return of stolen ancestral belongings to the Nation, laying the framework for the memorial pole’s rematriation — the term favored by the Nisg̱a’a Nation, as it grounds the process in Indigenous law and is more closely aligned with its matrilineal society.
A 2021 policy revision at the National Museums Scotland enabled the museum network to process repatriation requests from claimants outside of the United Kingdom. In August 2022, the Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government delegation, which included Parent, returned to Edinburgh to request the pole’s unconditional return to the sovereign nation. The request was approved by the museum that December, and the delegation and museum workers began planning for the pole’s journey home.
Right: Hercules Tail Number 130602 Transportation of memorial pole to Victoria, British Columbia on 23 September 2023 in Trenton, Ontario (Photo by: Sailor First Class Erin Roberts 8 Wing Imaging)
Parent viewed the return of her ancestor as an opportunity to reframe the rematriation of colonial loot as a broader testament to Native survivance.
“We are grateful to collectively tell a new story that turns the colonial gaze onto itself by acknowledging the complexities of our pole’s theft, its intergenerational absence from our community and the persistence needed to ensure that justice for our ancestors prevails,” Parent shared in a statement provided to Hyperallergic.
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