Visit to Glenbow with the Kainai Studies Students to see the visiting War Shirts from the Pitt Rivers Museum of Oxford, England

A group of students from the Kainai Studies department was invited to a workshop on March 23,2010 to visit with War Shirts that are on loan from the Pitt Rivers Museum of Oxford, England. The group was led by the director of Kainai Studies Ryan Heavy Head. The elder that was asked to speak about the shirts was Mi'ksskimmiisoka'simm (Allen Pard) who is one of only two people currently living that has the transferred right to have these shirts. Not just anyone can wear or make a Weasel or Scalp Lock shirt. The person that makes the shirt must have that right transfered to them and the person that wears the shirt must have that right transfered to them. There is currently only two people that can transfer that right and one of them is Allen Pard.

These Shirts were collected 170 years ago from the Blackfoot people and have since been sitting in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England. Alison Brown and Laura Peers have both been working very closely with the elders from all four Blackfoot tribes for a number of years. With their help the elders were able to negotiate this visit with the shirts. The website for this project is http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/blackfootshirts

The Shirts are currently in Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta and will be moving to the Galt Museum in Lethbridge, Alberta on May 16, 2010. The exhibition dates for the Glenbow are: 28 March- 15 May 2010. The exhibition dates for the Galt are: 6 June - 28 August 2010