From Photo Repatriation to Totem Pole Rematriation: Developing the Work of Tsimshian Photographer B.A. Haldane

This discussion highlights the main developments of a twenty-year research project focused on the images produced by 19th Century photographer B.A. (Benjamin Alfred) Haldane. B.A. (1874-1941) was proud member of the Laxgyibuu (wolf clan) of the Tsimshian Nation of Metlakatla, Alaska. One of the earliest professional Indigenous photographers in North America, he opened a Victorian-style studio in Metlakatla in 1899 where he created portraits of Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Haida people and families. A versatile and gifted musician and band director, he also travelled to their communities throughout Southeast Alaska and Northern British Columbia to take photographs and teach music. Few of his photographs survived in Metlakatla as they were collected and incorporated into the host of anonymously produced images in archives across North America. Starting in 2004, my community-based research of B.A.’s photography reattributed his work and repatriated to his images to our community and his family through exhibition, digital prints, and most importantly through our song, dance, and ceremony. The most recent develops in this research is the possible rematriation–returning back to our matrilineal community–of totem poles that are currently in museums in Geneva Switzerland and Washington, DC on the basis of B.A.’s photographs.

All are welcome to attend!

Sm Łoodm ‘Nüüsm (Dr. Mique’l Dangeli) is of the Tsimshian Nation of Metlakatla, Alaska. She is a leader of the Hayetsk Dancers and an Assistant Professor of Art History, Indigenous Arts, in the Department of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Victoria. Mique’l was recently awarded the Terra Foundation Visiting Professor of First Nations Art at the University of Sydney for the 2024-2025 academic year to expand upon her work in art history, language revitalization, sovereignty, and dance.