Pictures Bring Us Messages / Sinaakssiiksi aohtsimaahpihkookiyaawa

'"Pictures Bring Us Messages" marks a serious advance in research. There are regrettably far too few such collaborative projects, although the need has been identified for many years. This book is unique, innovative, and valuable, with scholarship of the highest standard. It establishes that it is possible to bridge a divide - perceived and sustained by museums, archives, historians, and others - if Indigenous ethics and protocols, and the needs of the source community, are respected.' -- Sarah Carter, Department of History, University of Calgary 'This book is a major contribution to research into museum/archives collections and how the people who work at these institutions can reach out to and work productively and collaboratively with Aboriginal peoples. The photos - the focus of the book - are excellent, and the text is carefully written, thoughtful, and analytical.' -- Patricia McCormack, School of Native Studies, University of Alberta

While based in Canada, the dynamics of the 'Pictures Bring Us Messages' project is relevant to indigenous peoples and heritage institutions around the world.

In 1925, Beatrice Blackwood of the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum took thirty-three photographs of Kainai people on the Blood Indian Reserve in Alberta as part of an anthropological project. In 2001, staff from the museum took copies of these photographs back to the Kainai and worked with community members to try to gain a better understanding of Kainai perspectives on the images. 'Pictures Bring Us Messages' is about that process, about why museum professionals and archivists must work with such communities, and about some of the considerations that need to be addressed when doing so.

Exploring the meanings that historic photographs have for source communities, Alison K. Brown, Laura Peers, and members of the Kainai Nation develop and demonstrate culturally appropriate ways of researching, curating, archiving, accessing, and otherwise using museum and archival collections. They describe the process of relationship building that has been crucial to the research and the current and future benefits of this new relationship. While based in Canada, the dynamics of the 'Pictures Bring Us Messages' project is relevant to indigenous peoples and heritage institutions around the world.