On June 21, a crowd gathered at the Millbrook Cultural and Heritage Centre in Millbrook, Nova Scotia, cheered and applauded as a red cloth draped over a display case fell away, revealing a set of Mi’kmaw regalia from 1842. The regalia, trimmed with colourful silk ribbons and ornamented with glass beads, had recently returned to Mi’kma’ki after more than 130 years in the collection of Museums Victoria in Australia.
Heather Stevens, the centre manager, spent a decade lobbying the museum for the return of the ceremonial regalia—which included a man’s jacket, shoes, brooch, pipe, and pouch—on behalf of her Mi’kmaq people. She was supported by former member of Parliament Bill Casey, who, moved by Stevens’s efforts, had drafted the Aboriginal Cultural Property Repatriation Act to call on the federal government to develop a national strategy for the return of significant cultural items as well as Indigenous remains, many of which were stolen, confiscated by Indian agents, or sold under duress.
