The trail of the Rabbit Fur Coat

One of the most exciting things that happened with our museum collection in the last few months was the amazing reunification of an object with the family of the maker.

In May 2015, ACCI hosted a Curatorial workshop lead by Moira McCaffrey, and one of the attendees was Linda Stewart Georgekish from Wemindji. At this time, she mentioned to us that her late mother Demaris Gilpin Stewart had made a rabbit fur coat ‘for a museum’ back in the 1980s and that she has been looking for it ever since! We informed her that we do have a few rabbit fur coats in our collection and that we would keep an eye out.

           A few months ago, Linda posted a photograph on Facebook of her nephew, Bernard Stewart, modelling the coat when he was a boy in 1980:

Bernard Stewart, 1980

Cree Nation Government Donation to the ACCI Archives

On September 8, 2014 ACCI received 28 boxes of books, reports, AV material, and photos from the Cree Nation Government office in Nemaska.

The books and annual reports from Cree entities will be added to the reference section and library, while the photos and hand-made books will be placed in the archives.

Aanischaaukamikw would like to thank the Cree Nation Government for their continued support of the ACCI library and archives.

Dr. Harvey Feit donates Hunters’ Diaries to ACCI

Anthropologist Dr. Harvey Feit is a name known well in Eeyou Istchee.  He was involved with the James Bay Northern Québec Agreement negotiations and has been doing field work in Waswanipi since the 1960s.

This August, Dr. Feit and his wife Lise came to visit us in Oujé-Bougoumou, and made a series of donations, including 31 Hunters’ Diaries, to the ACCI archives.  These diaries hold an important place in Eeyou Istchee history as they were used as evidence during the JBNQA hearings in the 1970s.  At the moment, three of the diaries are on display in our exhibit Reclaiming the Ways of Our Ancestors. In addition to the diaries, Dr. Feit has donated many photographs and material that will be open for future research.

Here is a link of an actual diary display in the museum:

To read about Dr. Feit’s last donation, see our blog post from 2013:

To learn more about the JBNQA check out this video.

The archival material of Dr. Cath Oberholtzer

ACCI Archives is happy to announce the acquisition of the archival material of Dr. Cath Oberholtzer.  Dr. Oberholtzer received her BA in Archaeology (1981) and her MA in Art and Archaeology (1986) at Trent University.  She received her Ph.D. (1995) in Anthropology at McMaster University under the supervision of Richard Preston with her thesis entitled Together we survive: East Cree Material Culture.  Her major research undertakings culminated in the production of Our Grandmothers’ Voices: East Cree material culture in museums (2001), the posthumously published Dream Catchers: Legend, Lore, and Artifacts (2012), and several chapters in other collaborative works.  Dr. Oberholtzer died unexpectedly on August 18, 2012 in Toronto at the age of 72 shortly after visiting ACCI for its Grand Opening. 

This August, ACCI staff Raegan Swanson and Jordan Graham went to the Oberholtzer family home to retrieve materials from Dr. Oberholtzer library and work space to bring to ACCI.  The material will be divided between the library and archives and open to researchers in the near future.  

ACCI would like to thank Ron Oberholtzer and the entire Oberholtzer family for this amazing donation and Candace Oberholtzer for her help in coordinating the effort to collect the material