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Archaeology
Former director of SFU’s museum recognized for decades-long commitment to communities across Canada
This February, Barbara Winter, the former director of SFU’s Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE) received a King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition of over 30 years of service to SFU’s MAE and communities throughout the country.
This medal recognizes those who have made a significant contribution to Canada, a particular province territory or community of Canada.
As director of SFU’s MAE for over three decades, Winter cared for countless belongings that were housed either temporarily or permanently at SFU, saw that belongings were returned to their home communities around the world through the process of repatriation and mentored and taught many students along the way.
“While I am not a monarchist, receiving this medal indicates a huge shift in museums. The King Charles III Coronation Medal symbolizes the change in attitude I have seen in my 50 years of work in museums in Ottawa, Yellowknife, Vancouver and at SFU,” says Winter.
She explains that early in her career, the sentiment towards repatriation wasn’t what it is today. “In the early 1970s the prevailing attitude was, ‘If we start returning museum objects to communities there will be nothing left to exhibit’ and 'We have the resources to look after these objects, and the communities do not.’ 50 years later, belongings are returned frequently and celebrated as they come home. I have been privileged to witness and have a small part in that major change in global museum policy and practice.”
Winter actively worked to repatriate belongings from SFU’s care, and even those beyond, since she first joined SFU’s MAE.
In Winter’s early days at SFU, she halted the sale and export of a sacred object from the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, and with the permission of the Saanich Cultural Heritage Society, cared for her at the SFU Museum for 30 years before she was finally brough home in January 2024.
“Belongings were taken from Indigenous peoples by colonial powers and have been held in museums as plunder and symbolic hostages. I looked for ways to engage the Indigenous owners of belongings held in those museums and have been honoured to have participated in the return of many ancestors and belongings,” says Winter.
Winter also taught museum studies courses while at SFU, both on campus and in Kamloops at the Secwepemc Cultural Education Society. “I tried to empower Indigenous students with knowledge and confidence to take on cultural stewardship, to have agency in negotiations,” says Winter. “I tried to teach non-Indigenous students to embrace repatriation without fear, to create a new kind of museum where people are more important than things.”