Welcome

Welcome

What you find on this site is the result of the coordinated effort of a class of 22 students from the University of Pennsylvania and our professor, Timothy Powell. The course, listed as ENGL / ANTH / CINE 282 "Rebelling Against Stereotypes: Native American Film," was dedicated in part to designing this digital exhibit.  Our goal was to bring together the A. Irving Hallowell collections at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and at the American Philosophical Society and to digitally repatriate these materials to the Anishinaabe or Ojibwe First Nations of the Berens River region in north central Canada.  'Digital repatriation' is a new process whereby museums and archives make digital copies of Native American materials and return them to tribes and First Nations so that they can be used for language preservation and cultural revitalization.

A. Irving Hallowell (18962-1974), known to his friends as "Pete," spent most of his long, distinguished forty-year career at the University of Pennsylvania.  Hallowell worked very closely with William Berens, a chief of the Ojibwe from the Berens River region of northern Manitoba and Ontario.   Hallowell was known for his deep sensitivity to Ojibwe culture and his respect for the teachings of his good friend and partner, "Willie" Berens.  Hallowell was one of the first anthropologists to break out of the patronizing view that First Nations peoples were "primitive" or "savage," recognizing their worldview as a well formulated philosophy.  Among his contributions were his view that the spirituality of the Ojibwe deserved to be taken seriously, such that Hallowell wrote of spirits as "other than human beings," acknowledging their existence and the important role that they played in the lives of contemporary Ojibwe philosophers like William Berens.

This class project was a remarkable success.  On May 20, 2010, the students presented the digital images they took of the Hallowell collection at the Penn Museum to Sophia Rabliauskas, leader of the Poplar River First Nations Ojibwe and spokesperson for the Pimachiowin Aki corporation.  Pimachiowin aki means, in the Ojibwe language, 'land that gives life.'  This group-- composed of the Poplar River, Little Grand Rapids, Pkikangikum, and Pauingassi First Nations in partnership with the provincial governments of Manitoba and Ontario-- are submitting a UNESCO World Heritage grant to preserve 40,000 square kilometers of boreal forest and the cultural landscape of the Ojibwe/Anishinaabe. Such a grant would be the first ever submitted by the Canadian government on behalf of First Nations people.  

All of us involved in the project are very proud that the work we have done as part of our class is helping to support the UNESCO grant application.  We hope that this project demonstrates the tremendous, if unexplored, power of digital repatriation and the important role that Penn undergraduates can play in an internationally prominent research project.  Miigwech ('thank you') to all those who helped make this possible.

This corporation consists of four Ojibwe/Anishinaabe bands-- Pikangikum First Nation, Poplar River First Nation, Pauingassi First Nation, and Little Grand Rapids First Nation-- and the provincial governments of Manitoba and Ontario. Currently, the organization's members are seeking the passing of a 

In addition, the Hallowell photographs from the APS, which were also examined by members of this class, will be used to demonstrate just how profound a relationship the Ojibwe/Anishinaabe have to their cultural landscape.