Bringing Our Ancestors Home: First Nation, Inuit and Métis-led Rematriation

Over the past five years, Lara and Pahan, along with Dr. Lorena Fontaine, have served as Co-Chairs of the University of Manitoba’s (UM) 'Bringing Our Ancestors Home' Ceremony. During this period, and under the guidance of FNIM Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and the community, the UM has offered a public apology, developed a rematriation policy written by FNIM community members, and established a transformative model for return and reburial that centers FNIM worldviews, protocols, and sovereignties. This talk explores that model and advocates for a paradigmatic shift in repatriation now.

Pahan PteSanWin, a Lodge Holder and Sundance leader, is Michif and a Red River Métis citizen descended from the Klyne and Paul families of Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan. In both ceremonial and academic roles, she advocates for the rematriation of Indigenous Ancestors and belongings, emphasizing that First Nations, Inuit, and Métis (FNIM) communities must lead these return processes.
Lara Rosenoff Gauvin, granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, understands the housing of Indigenous Ancestors and heritage by settler institutions as a direct legacy of dehumanizing colonial and settler-colonial genocide. Along with Pahan and Lorena (co-chairs), she works closely with Elders, Grandmothers, Grandfathers, and Knowledge Keepers to assure that they guide all aspects of the ‘Bringing Our Ancestors Home’ Ceremony, and approaches the work as a necessary step in Canada's, and her own, relational repair and atonement journey.

This event is co-organized by the Faculty of Arts & Science and University College.