Rankin MLA wants Nunavut artifacts to come home

Heritage Minister George Kuksuk says the Nunavut government still doesn’t have enough money to build a heritage centre capable of safely storing valuable archeological artifacts that are now held in Ottawa and Yellowknife. (FILE PHOTO)

When long-lost artifacts within Nunavut are discovered — like those belonging to the HMS Erebus shipwreck discovered last September northwest of King William Island — they’re shipped out of the territory and often put on display for other Canadians to enjoy.

But Nunavummiut can’t view the artifacts unless they travel outside the territory. They never have — because there’s no appropriate facility to house those artifacts here.

Rankin Inlet South MLA Alex Sammurtok was the latest to raise the issue, addressing Nunavut’s minister of Culture and Heritage during oral question period May 28 at the Nunavut Legislature in Iqaluit.

“The Legislative Assembly approved $500,000 in capital funding in November 2014 for a project that would allow the [culture and heritage] department to repatriate heritage assets currently being placed outside the territory,” Sammurtok said.

“Can the minister indicate what specific steps his department will be taking to take select heritage building in Nunavut that will receive… the artifacts?”

Kuksuk said efforts are ongoing.

“We are working on this continuously,” Kuksuk replied, adding that artifacts belonging to Nunavut are currently housed in locations in the Northwest Territories, Ottawa and Winnipeg.

Kuksuk said he travelled to the NWT three months ago for discussions on repatriating the artifacts, “however, right now, we don’t have the proper storage space for them or displays for them.”

In November 2014, the minister received submissions to house these cultural objects from the Kivalliq Inuit Association, Cape Dorset and Kugluktuk, Sammurtok said in his follow-up question.

“Has the department received any more submissions to date?” he asked Kuksuk.

“Our department has been approached by the private sector… [but] right now we are not in serious talks with any one group,” Kuksuk replied.

“No decision has been made as to who we will be talking to seriously.”

“Can the minister provide a timeline for when his department will begin actually repatriating artifacts?” Sammurtok asked during his final follow-up question.

“Discussions… are in such an initial stage that I can’t really outline as to when we will be able to repatriate some of the artifacts,” Kuksuk replied.

“However, I do expect that in the coming years, we will start to see artifacts that belong to Nunavut being brought back.”

Artifacts discovered in September 2014 on or near the shipwrecked HMS Erebus — one of two ships lost during an 1896 Arctic expedition led by Sir John Franklin — are currently being “carefully conserved,” according to information found on Parks Canada’s website.

Parks Canada, which led the 2014 search for the shipwreck, recently displayed some of the artifacts over the May long weekend at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, according to a May 13 news release from Parks Canada.