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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Calgary) The book that chronicles the historically significant repatriation work taken on
by the Blackfoot and the Glenbow Museum will be celebrated at a book launch on April
10th, 2015.
In the summer of 2009, while they were gathered at a restaurant in Fort Macleod, Allan
Pard, Narcisse Blood, and Gerry Conaty decided to write a book. The book, We Are Coming
Home, was written to create a record of the complex process of returning 251 sacred
objects from the Glenbow Museum’s collection to the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot).
But the book provides more than simply a documentation of this process, it underscores
the continued cultural value of these items to the Blackfoot community. It also chronicles
the Glenbow’s first tentative steps toward repatriation—which received harsh criticism
from museum officials and the provincial government. In fact, the act of repatriation was so
rarely undertaken that there was no legal precedent for the return of museum holdings to
source communities—such was the ground-breaking nature of their work. Most
importantly, it is a commemoration of the work done by Gerry Conaty (1953–2013) and
Narcisse Blood (1954–2015) and their dedication, along with other Blackfoot and museum
officials, to the goal of carrying on Blackfoot culture and sacred traditions.
EVENT
Glenbow Museum Theatre
Calgary, AB
Friday, 10 April 2015 @ 4:30 pm
Join AU Press and Glenbow Museum along with authors
Robert R. Janes, Allan Pard, Frank Weasel Head, and Jerry Potts
for a short program followed by a reception.
MEDIA CONTACT MEGAN HALL PH:780.428.2067 mhall@athabascau.ca