Using as a case example an ownership dispute over a Gitksan origin story depicted on the
carved doors of University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology (MOA), this
thesis contributes to an understanding of the ways in which hereditary prerogatives are
being exercised in new contexts on the Northwest Coast and the political ramifications
this entails for both museums and traditional systems of ownership. Drawing on
interviews, archival materials, and published sources, this thesis details the ongoing
history of the 'Ksan doors, from their commissioning in the early-1970s, as both an
architectural feature of MOA and an example of contemporary Northwest Coast art, to
their emergence as the focal point of an ownership dispute twenty years later that was
escalated, if not precipitated, by a 1991 interpretive-dance performance of the origin story
that they depict that involved Hereditary Chief Kenneth B. Harris. The claims and
actions of Chief Harris and a Gitksan woman named Dolly Watts (whom many identify
as the source of the dispute) are considered both ethnographically and historically, with a
final emphasis on how MOA has in this case become a forum around and through which
cultural meanings and identities are being asserted.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10541 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Blair, Graham Alexander |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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