Pictures Bring Us Messages / Sinaakssiiksi Aohtsimaahpihkookiyaawa : Photographs and Histories From the Kainai Nation

While based in Canada, the dynamics of the __'Pictures Bring Us Messages'__ project is relevant to indigenous peoples and heritage institutions around the world.

In 1925, Beatrice Blackwood of the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum took thirty-three photographs of Kainai people on the Blood Indian Reserve in Alberta 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 Kainai 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 researching, curating, archiving, accessing, and otherwise using museum and archival collections. They describe the process of relationship building that has been crucial to the research and the current and future benefits of this new relationship. While based in Canada, the dynamics of the 'Pictures Bring Us Messages' project is relevant to indigenous peoples and heritage institutions around the world.

In 1925, Beatrice Blackwood of the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum took thirty-three photographs of Kainai people on the Blood Indian Reserve in Alberta 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 Kainai 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 researching, curating, archiving, accessing, and otherwise using museum and archival collections. They describe the process of relationship building that has been crucial to the research and the current and future benefits of this new relationship. While based in Canada, the dynamics of the 'Pictures Bring Us Messages' project is relevant to indigenous peoples and heritage institutions around the world Contents 5 Illustrations 7 Foreword 9 Acknowledgments 11 Project Participants 15 Introduction 19 CHAPTER ONE. The Photographs and Their Contexts: Kainai History 31 CHAPTER TWO. Anthropological Contexts 64 CHAPTER THREE. Working Together 96 CHAPTER FOUR. Reading the Photographs 126 CHAPTER FIVE. The Past in the Present: Community Conclusions 158 CHAPTER SIX. Moving Forward: Institutional Implications 193 Conclusions 213 Statement of Consent 221 Appendix One: Itinerary of Beatrice Blackwood’s North American Fieldwork, 1924–7 223 Appendix Two: Beatrice Blackwood’s Notations on Her Photographs with Kainai Identifications 229 Appendix Three: Protocol Agreement 234 Appendix Four: Kainai Reflections on Beatrice Blackwood’s Diary 237 Notes 263 Bibliography 275 Index 291 "In 1925, Beatrice Blackwood of the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum took thirty-three photographs of Kainai people on the Blood Indian Reserve in Alberta 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."--Jacket