Sdahl K’awaas wins Sterling Prize for challenging racism and the role of museums in era of reconciliation
Also known as Lucy Bell, Sdahl K’awaas resigned from her position at Royal British Columbia Museum in 2020
Sdahl K’awaas. Photo via Simon Fraser University
RECOGNIZED FOR HER bravery in calling out racism in the heritage field and advocating for change, Sdahl K’awaas is the recipient of Simon Fraser University’s 2021 Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy.
Also known as Lucy Bell, Sdahl K’awaas resigned from her high-profile position as the first head of the Indigenous Collections and Repatriation Department at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria in 2020.
In her resignation speech at the time, which launched a Public Service Agency investigation, Sdahl K’awaas alleged a culture of personal and systemic institutional racism that she and other Indigenous and people of colour faced in the workplace.
Her comments and allegations shook the museum world. The investigation substantiated multiple claims of racism and workplace bullying.
Sdahl K’awaas sees the Sterling Prize as on opportunity to advance the discussion on racism against Indigenous people and a step toward reconciliation so that the next generation, which includes her daughter Amelia, doesn’t have to face the same discrimination she has.
“There are so many opportunities within the heritage field in Canada, we have to address discrimination in order to move forward,” Sdahl K’awaas said in a release.
“Receiving the Sterling Prize is so amazing and to see that people hear my truth and my voice,” she said. “The whole point of the prize is to provide a platform to have difficult conversations, so it’s a huge win for whistleblowers and Indigenous people. It shows we can do something about racism and that there’s an opportunity to make change.”
Sdahl K’awaas will receive the Sterling Prize and give a lecture on these issues at an award ceremony on October 14 at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver. The event will be live-streamed for the public. (To register, visit the Sterling Prize award ceremony event page.)
More broadly, Sdahl K’awaas’ experience is forcing museums to reflect on themselves and grapple with their colonial legacy at the same time Canada comes to terms with its treatment of Indigenous people.
“It makes me so sad that I had to leave the Royal BC Museum to speak my truth but this is a bigger issue in the heritage field,” Sdahl K’awaas said.
Sdahl K’awaas continues to support the Haida Nation’s repatriation efforts while working toward her PhD in individualized interdisciplinary studies at SFU (focusing on Indigenous museology and Haida museum practice as an act of restitution and reconciliation).
There are more than 12,000 belongings from the Haida Nation scattered in museums and galleries around the world, some of which the Haida are trying to reclaim and bring back home.
The Sterling Prize was first awarded in 1993 to recognize work that provokes and contributes to the understanding of controversy, while presenting new ways of looking at the world and challenging complacency.
For more information, see the Sterling Prize.
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