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VIDEO: Bringing the Ancestors Home

Four decades ago archaeologists took these human remains. Last year, the Heiltsuk brought them home. A report from BC's Enduring Coast.

Kai Nagata and Stephanie Brown 29 Oct 2012TheTyee.ca

Kai Nagata is a Vancouver-based videographer. Formerly the Tyee's Writer In Residence, he also held positions at CTV and CBC. Both sides of his family have lived and worked in British Columbia for a century.

Stephanie Brown is a Montreal-based producer formerly of the National Film Board and most recently spent a year abroad working with Burmese NGOs on human rights advocacy projects. She is a proud bilingual Métis.

This article was produced by Tyee Solutions Society in collaboration with Tides Canada Initiatives (TCI). TCI neither influences nor endorses the particular content of TSS' reporting. Other publications wishing to publish this story or other Tyee Solutions Society-produced articles, please see this website for contacts and information.

[Editor's note: Earlier this year, a special team of Tyee Solutions Society reporters had the chance to spend some time on B.C.'s Central Coast. Follow their reports through this special series.]

In this video, Wqivilba Wakas, hereditary chief Harvey Humchitt from the Heiltsuk First Nation, describes what it felt like to have Heiltsuk ancestral remains brought home for reburial. Archaeologists took the remains 40 years ago.  [Tyee]

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