'PICTURES BRING US MESSAGES7 / SINAAKSSIIKSI AOHTSIMAAHPIHKOOKIYAAWA: PHOTOGRAPHS AND HISTORIES FROM THE KAINAI NATION

In 1925, Beatrice Blackwood of the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum took thirty-three photographs of Kainai people on the Blood in as part of an anthropological project. In 2001, staff from the museum took copies of these photographs back to the Kainai and worked with community members to try to gain a better understanding of their perspectives on the images. 'Pictures Bring Us Messages' is about that process, about why museum professionals and archivists must work with such communities, and about some of the considerations that need to be addressed when doing so. Exploring the meanings that historic photographs have for source communities, Alison K. Brown, Laura Peers, and members of the Kainai Nation develop and demonstrate culturally appropriate ways of re- searching, curating, archiving, accessing, and otherwise using museum and archival collections. The very process of building ties between museum and community has been crucial to the research and to the current and future benefits of this new relationship. Although the 'Pic- tures Bring Us Messages' project was based in , its dynamics are relevant to indigenous peoples and heritage institutions around the world.

ALISON K. BROWN is a research fellow with the Department of Anthro- pology at the University of Aberdeen.

LAURA PEERS is a lecturer and curator with the Pitt Rivers Museum and the School of Anthropology at the University of Oxford. This page intentionally left blank 'Pictures Bring Us Messages'/ Sinaakssiiksi Aohtsimaahpihkookiyaawa Photographs and Histories from the Kainai Nation

ALISON K. BROWN AND LAURA PEERS WITH MEMBERS OF THE KAINAI NATION

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2006 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada

Reprinted 2007

ISBN 0-8020-9006-0 (cloth) ISBN 0-8020-4891-9 (paper)

oo

Printed on acid-free paper

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Brown, Alison K. (Alison Kay), 1971- Pictures bring us messages = Sinaakssiiksi aohtsimaahpihkookiyaawa : photographs and histories from the Kainai nation / Alison K. Brown and Laura Peers with members of the Kainai nation. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8020-9006-0 (bound) ISBN 0-8020-4891-9 (pbk.) I. Kainai Indians - Portraits. 2. Kainai Indians - Pictorial works. 3. Kainai Indians - History. 4. Blood Indian Reserve No. 148 (Alta.) - History. 5. Pitt Rivers Museum - Catalogs. I. Peers, Laura Lynn, 1963- II. Title. III. Title: Sinaakssiiksi aohtsimaahpihkookiyaawa. E99.K15B76 2006 971.23^400497352 C2005-902578-6

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sci- ences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).