| This thesis examines how a Plains Cree elder 'develops protocol' in two Albertan museums, one of which has an extensive collection of Plains Cree sacred materials. These museums are interested in working towards developing repatriation regulations for the return of these items to their source communities. Through an anthropology of interacting ontologies- or orientations to reality- the thesis draws attention to potential conflicts inherent in this highly politicized process of negotiation.;Taking Glenbow Museum's storage room as a meeting place for these distinct ontological engagements- the state via museological practice, and the Cree through the protocols of one elder- conflicts in how each approaches sacred subject matter are identified. While the state assumes bureaucracy must prevail, the Cree require protocols to guide the process. Protocols, both political and ceremonial acts that govern as laws of exchange and reciprocity, involve humans and the sacred materials in a relational system of agents. |
