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The Washington museum is not a place of static exhibits but a museum “steadfastly committed to bringing native voice” to what the museum does through its exhibitions, presentations, publications or on the internet. Canada has nothing comparable.

Media reports here indicate that aboriginal groups are watching the development of LeBreton Flats closely, as the site is on traditional Algonquin territory. Algonquin Chief Kirby Whiteduck is quoted saying “we’re looking for and seeking some significant benefit.” What could be more significant than a National Museum of Indigenous Peoples on LeBreton Flats?

A friend pointed to the Museum of History, which has an indigenous collection and is expanding its exhibit space, saying we would not want a separate museum for each Canadian group. He’s right – to a point. The Museum of History does house the magnificent First Peoples Hall, which the museum itself says “does not pretend to be a comprehensive history of Native groups,” but is there to explore “aspects of cultural identity.”

Cardinal himself helped design the museum’s re-imagined Canadian History Hall, which “will include the perspectives of those who lived here long before the Europeans landed …” But by its title, this is a museum of Canadian “history,” not one dedicated solely to indigenous peoples, their contemporary life and culture as well as their past.

The director of Washington’s museum is a Pawnee and 17 of its 24-member board of trustees are Native Americans. Its holdings represent virtually all tribes in the United States and “most of those in Canada.” On a visit to the museum a year ago, I saw three rotating exhibitions on Canada’s indigenous peoples.

Hopefully, there will be a day when Canadians can learn in Ottawa as much about our indigenous peoples as we might discover in Washington.

Robert Hage is Senior Fellow at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa.