In the late 19th century, the Pitt Rivers acquired a group of Native American ceremonial shirts from a senior official of the Hudson Bay Company, who had collected them from the Blackfoot tribes when visiting the company’s fur trading stations in the 1840s.

This exhibition tells several stories. First that of the shirts themselves, intricately made and fascinating garments. Second, the period of Blackfoot history, a time of cultural interactions (sometimes bloody) between the Blackfoot and the trading colonising Westerners. Finally, it deals as well with the recent collaboration between the universities of Oxford and Aberdeen, Glenbow Museum and Galt Museum and Archives in Canada and members of the Blackfoot communities themselves. These communities currently stand at 42,000 strong.

The collaboration has resulted in the Pitt Rivers shirts being repatriated ‘home’ for a period to Blackfoot country. There has also been a continuing dialogue about the impact of the shirts on the identity and memories of the Blackfoot and the evolution of contemporary art and craft that makes use of traditional materials and methods.

In 2010, one of the Blackfoot ceremonial leaders came to Oxford to ‘meet’ the shirts. One of his first acts was to paint and bless all those involved in curating to preserve them from the powerful spirits that were with the shirts.

The exhibition is beautifully curated, celebrating the shirts in their own right, and their ceremonial and traditional significance to the Blackfoot. We see too how their role in ‘Visiting With the Ancestors’ impacted on contemporary Blackfoot and their creativity.

Central to the exhibition are the three shirts themselves, each magnificently displayed in its own glass case.

The Ceremonial Shirt, pictured, has been blessed and tells the story of the valour of the man wearing it. The images of 11 slain enemies can be seen, as can the cache of weapons captured (bows, knives and a rifle), along with a horse and several scalps.

 

Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
Until September 1