This Song is a Museum (2011), provided by Peter Morin, who is a member of the Crow clan of the Tahltan First Nation in northwest British Columbia, is placed in a tall case near the entrance of the Multiversity Gallery in the Museum of Anthropology. Five painted octagonal drums and a wood drumstick with fur, skin, beads, and paint are exhibited in this conspicuous case. After reading the information in the accompanying plates, I can understand how this work is made and why it is named This Song is a Museum. In 2011, after dipping the drumstick into the black paint, Coast Salish singer Hwieumten, invited by Peter Morin, gave a performance with this drumstick and five drums. The drums with paint made by the drumstick actually have recorded the performance of the Indigenous people and are seen by Peter Morin as a fluid structure to carry Indigenous ideas. Actually, this work acts perfectly as “figurative repatriation”, for the reason that it has the function to tell the “non-native audiences” the mysterious but real life of the Tahltan in this case (Kramer 164).
Just like This Song is a Museum, cases around it are almost about Tahltan, and as introduced by a plate, Tahltan, a First Nations people, are original inhabitants of the Stikine River Watershed, which is also clearly shown in a map. Take a Dagoji (Dagger) for example, which is put on the back of This Song is a Museum, I can tell that it is used for war by Tahltan from the information provided. But different from the This Song is a Museum, this dagger is just a normal museum exhibit, to show a history or life of Indigenous people and is still. By saying “still”, I mean that I cannot tell any story from the dagger except it should be used in war. But when I see the drums with paint and the information given, I can almost see Hwieumten playing the drums and singing in the Tahltan way. Moreover, compared to the dagger, a physical object belonging to the Tahltan, This Song is a Museum just uses the drum provided by Peter Morin to record the Tahltan music.
After looking around the museum, I am wondering that what kind of work can be called as a “good work” in the museum. Does it need to have a long history? Does it need to be the property of the Indigenous people? Actually, This Song is a Museum and the Tahltan dagger are both good works from my perspective, for the reason that they both recognize the life of the Indigenous people and then inform us by showing the objects and the information given on the plates.
Reference
Kramer, Jennifer. “Figurative Repatriation: First Nations ‘Artist-Warriors’ Recover, Reclaim, and Return Cultural Property through Self-Definition.” Journal of Material Culture, vol. 9, no. 2, July 2004, pp. 161–182