Museums have always played a large role in my life, and my love for travel, so I was ecstatic to find an opportunity that would encourage my curiosity and allow me to travel to one of my favorite places–Montreal.
As soon as I began researching museums in the city, and what sparked my interest about museological portrayals of Indigenous environmentalism, I was delighted to find the McCord Stewart Museum. Since its inception, it has served as a way to share historical knowledge and artifacts, recently pivoting its focus on centering Indigenous voices when sharing the narrative of the history of Canada, Quebec, and Montreal.
I knew I had to visit, but I wasn’t exactly sure of what I wanted to find. I had a coding system I created for each plaque in the McCord Stewart Museum, but after taking my first stop at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum–the Montreal Museum of Archaeology and History–I became more interested in the types of artifacts instead. While there were plenty of documents, entire structures, and hundreds of different types of artifacts from the first settlers, there were only a few types of artifacts from the First Nations peoples on Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), which mainly included smoking pipes and weapons.
I understand that there are many reasons for this discrepancy. Perhaps most of the important artifacts have been rightfully returned to their inheritors, perhaps they are in private collections, or perhaps other important artifacts have been destroyed. However, I turned my attention and interest in what the presence of the artifacts themselves can communicate about the “Indigenous Voices of Today” in the McCord Stewart Museum.
The exhibits were thoughtfully curated to showcase contemporary Indigenous art and activism, highlighting the resilience and creativity of these communities. I took solace in knowing that the place I wanted to visit most was as engaging as I anticipated. I especially noticed how the museum blends historical and contemporary elements through multimedia installations and traditional artifact presentation.
The exhibit also showcased environmental stewardship practices of Indigenous communities, both historical and contemporary, furthering the narrative of resilience and everlastingness in the importance and sustainability of these methods.
In addition to visiting the two museums, I had a great time again exploring one of my favorite cities, enjoying the view from the top of Mount Royal and biking along the riverside. To further explore the theme of sustainability in the city, I even visited the Biodome–an attraction housing replicas of several ecosystems found across the Americas, utilizing space and structures created for the Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics.
I can’t wait to further explore and analyze all the data I have collected. I even picked up a book titled Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums at the National Museum of the American Indian (DC) which I have been waiting to read until I visited my first museum for this project. I am looking forward to see what else I can explore, discover, and learn!