Ranjita Biswas was fascinated by the exhibits at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, which showcases the life of the original inhabitants of the country, when she visited in June this year. Read her first-hand account here
The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto is famous for its sizeable collection of exhibits, including historical artefacts, pieces from the Far East and even flora and fauna. A stand-out for me was the First Peoples Gallery, for the depiction of the lifestyle of the First Nations people or the original inhabitants of Canada. First Nations was a term officially used by the government from the 1980s, replacing the word Indian, which referred to groups of native American Indians with a common government and language.
As in the case of the aboriginals of Australia, the white colonisers ran roughshod over Canada’s original inhabitants and tried to smother their cultural ethos and even confined many to gated communities. In recent years, the Canadian Government and the Catholic Church have formally apologised to the indigenous people for past misdeamenours and there has been a conscious effort to establish the relevance of indigenous people in Canada’s socio-cultural life. The First Peoples Gallery opened in 2005 with inputs from advisors belonging to the indigenous communities. Historians have grouped First Nations according to the six main geographic areas of Canada as it exists today. Within each of these six areas, First Nations had very similar cultures, largely shaped by a common environment.
with the exception of those in the Pacific Coast, made their
clothing – usually tunics, leggings and moccasins – of tanned animal skin.
The six groups are: Woodland First Nations, who lived in dense boreal forests in the eastern part of the country; Iroquoian First Nations, who inhabited the southernmost area, a fertile land suitable for planting corn, beans and squash; Plains First Nations, who lived on the grasslands of the Prairies; Plateau First Nations, whose landscape ranged from semi-desert conditions in the south to high mountains and dense forest in the north; Pacific Coast First Nations, who had access to abundant salmon and shellfish and the gigantic red cedar for building huge houses; and the First Nations of the Mackenzie and Yukon River Basins, whose harsh environment consisted of dark forests, barren lands and the swampy terrain known as muskeg.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, First Nations people were able to satisfy all of their material and spiritual needs through the resources the natural world offered. The gallery’s more than 1,000 objects on display examine the economic and social forces that have influenced indigenous culture and art from pre-European times to the present day. They showcase the complex relationship between traditions and present life, the work of collectors who sought to document the unique experiences of indigenous cultures and through them provide a sense of what it means to be an indigenous person in the contemporary world.
At the entrance to the gallery is a huge totem pole. Totem poles are primarily visual representations of kinship, depicting family crests and clan membership. These poles were carved from cedar wood. They were often decorated with intricate carvings of stylised human figures and animals. The placement and importance of the carvings depended on the observer’s knowledge of the figures and the culture they represent. For example, some Kwakwaka’wakw families of northern Vancouver Island belonging to the Thunderbird Clan would feature a thunderbird crest and family legends on their poles. An eagle on top of the pole could represent the determination needed to look towards the future.
The exhibits include traditional clothing, jewellery, shoes and hunting tools of different clans. All First Nations, with the exception of the Pacific Coast, made their clothing – usually tunics, leggings and moccasins – of tanned animal skin. Women prepared the animal skins and used a smoke tanning process to preserve the hides. Bone needles were used to sew the garments with sinew from the back or legs of a caribou, moose or deer. In winter, people wore robes of fur for extra warmth. Caribou skins were particularly valued by First Nations of the Mackenzie and Yukon River Basins because caribou hair is an excellent insulator.
The decorative elements on clothing came from nature. Many Woodland, Haudenosaunee (the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) and northern First Nations used dyed porcupine quills to embroider designs on their clothing and moccasins. Men and women coloured their clothing with red, yellow, blue and green dyes derived from flowers, fruits, roots and berries. The men of the Plains First Nations also regularly wore face paint, and a red dye derived from the clay was a very popular colour.
Spiritual beliefs
First Nations people believed that their values and traditions were gifts from the Creator. From childhood they were taught that people should live in harmony with the natural world. As in communities of ancient times across the world, oral stories and legends were passed on by the elders from one generation to another. People gave thanks to everything in nature, upon which they depended for survival and development as individuals and as members of their communities. All objects in the environment, whether animate or inanimate, were respected by the First Nations people.
This is reflected in their songs, dances, festivals and ceremonies. For survival, they had to hunt, but a Woodland First Nations hunter would talk or sing to a bear before it died, thanking the animal for providing the hunter and his family with the food. Sowing season and harvest season are celebrated by farming communities all over the world. The First Nations observed a seven-day festival to give thanks when corn was planted, and another when it turned green. A third festival was held when corn was harvested.
Today, many contemporary First Nations artistes are interpreting oral traditions in their own creations like stone carvings, building a bridge between the ancient and modern. These pieces are also on display at the gallery.
(The writer lives in Kolkata.)
from Webdoux