agreement. These initiatives appear to work at a practical level and have been successfully implemented into practice.

69. I will outline this model and how it relates to the repatriation, access arrangements, protection and ownership of taonga. I would invite the Tribunal to consider this model and perhaps commission an independent report on its implementation and possible application to our situation.

70. The Nisga’a are an indigenous people in northern British Columbia, Canada, who as part of their attempts to settle their own treaty issues, worked with the Canadian Museum of Civilisation to come up with their own model for managing and caring for their taonga. I have met with some of their chiefs and representatives. I have also met with the Director of the Museum of Civilisation, Canada while on a visit at the time the Nisga’a Agreement in Principle was made, in early 1996.

71. The Nisga’a Agreement in Principle is approximately 180 pages, so I have only appended to this evidence the section which deals with Cultural Artifacts and Heritage.²⁰ I will not go into all the details at this stage, but if after reading the appendix you have questions I will be happy to answer them.

72. The main aspects from this model which I believe warrant your backing as delivering more closely to our Treaty principles are as follows:

72.1 All legal interests and possession of artifacts transfer to Nisga’a;

72.2 Custodial arrangements are negotiated from time to time;

72.3 The Canadian Museum of Civilisation (“CMC”) remain responsible for the care, maintenance and preservation of Nisga’a artifacts in accordance with resources made available for such activities;

²⁰ Refer excerpt annexed and marked “C”