BBC NEWS | Americas | Totem returned to Canadian tribeWell it is about darn time! As a Congolese man, I am still bewildered by the fact that I have to travel to Brussels, and then to Tervuren, to go see much of the artistic, cultural and folkloric wealth of my own country... I mean, right now, Congo does not have the means to actually house much of those, but something tells me that even if we could, and we expressed a desire to have even some of it back, we would have to fight veeeeeery hard...
"A Canadian tribe has recovered a totem pole that was taken from them in the 1920s and was on display in Sweden.
The nine-metre (30-foot) high artefact is one of most significant treasures of the Haisla nation of British Columbia.
It was erected in 1876 at the mouth of the Kitlope River in north-western Canada to honour a spirit for saving the tribe from a smallpox epidemic."
Go First Nations!
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I am glad that around the world we have this forum to voice the news, concerns and issues.I pray that your people keep alive, or revive the fundaments of your traditional spiritual ways for our descendants to cherish as much as our anscestors did.
I would be glad if your readers also check my site.
Welcome to The Salon, CGE. An honor to have you here. Thank you for the wishes, which mirror much of the words of our elders in Congo, and Africa. Peace be with you.
After visiting ARNACO, the National Archives, better leave everything in Tervuren! It's either for sale, as in a garage sale, or it was pillaged by the Congolese themselves. The Congolese are more concentrated on the history of Jesus than their own anyways.
Treasuring history is more of a luxury than a necessity, despite what we want to make of it.
You do enjoy controversy, don't you? :)
Anyway, for the time being, I agree with you. But hopefully someday there will be a time when some of that can come back, if just on principle.
And yes, it is a luxury. But, IMHO, that's because we ceased a very long time ago, to actually learn from it.
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