Amid slanted snowfall and with bald eagles flying free nearby, the repatriated remains of two Squamish Nation forbearers were buried in the Wai wai kum Cemetery in Brackendale on Sunday (Nov. 26).
The bad weather did not deter the 60 mourners, some driving from as far away as Washington State, who came to honour the two-millennia-old skeletal remains which had arrived in Vancouver on Friday. The remains had been part of the collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec, for decades. They were returned as part of the museum's policy to repatriate human remains.
A half-mile-long procession took the funeral party from the entrance of the Wai wai kum Reserve to the cemetery. The mourners were led by 10 sacred mask dancers, at least one in bare feet, who kept up a steady rhythm as they moved alongside the two pallbearers who bore the small cedar caskets containing the bones. The beat of 10 women drummers echoed off the houses on the reserve and residents lined the route to pay respect.
Chief Dennis Joseph asked those present to "witness what is going to take place" and to report the repatriation to their own communities. He added "we have been waiting a while for this day" and asked those taking part to have good thoughts as their ancestors were laid to rest.
The remains were located by Chief Janice George while she was on a study internship at the museum a year ago. She initiated the repatriation proceedings and described herself Sunday as "very happy."
"I feel like the circle is complete for the ancestors. For me, too, it is a responsibility fulfilled," she said. "I'm so honoured that the ancestors showed themselves to me. What I feel for them I feel about my own parents."
The graveside service held traditional Squamish singing, along with Catholic and Shaker eulogies, before the boxes were finally committed to the earth.
"If we could count the snowflakes, that's how many ancestors there are," Shaker minister Eugene Harry told the mourners. "There is greatness in the air they're ever so grateful to come back home."
The ancient remains, believed to be of Squamish nobility, were taken by anthropological "collectors" from Stanley Park burial sites on two separate occasions in 1889 and 1928.
Fifteen-year-old Joan Daniels of North Vancouver said it was hard to put the event into words.
"Today was beautiful," she said. "I can't say I've every really experienced something like this [before]."
