Lost for over a century, Heiltsuk Nation celebrates return of bentwood box

The Heiltsuk First Nation is celebrating the return of a precious piece of history, lost to their people for more than a century.

The nation held a special reunification ceremony for the bentwood box last Friday that coincided with a feast to mark the ratification of their written constitution .

“I was very emotional,” said Christine Smith Martin, CEO of Coastal First Nations, who helped facilitate the return of the box from an American family to the Heiltsuk Nation.

“We really want to tell art collectors or whoever may have boxes similar to this, the right thing to do is to bring it home, to make sure those boxes make it home if they can because its an important piece for us, there’ s a lot of teachings on that box, there’s a lot of things artists might not have seen yet.”‘

Bentwood