SGaan Kwahagang / James Dean McGuire
Indigenous Conservation Fellow
American Museum of Natural History

Much of the ancestral understanding of Indigenous history is locked in the collections of museums and private collections around the world. Having long worked with the Haida Gwaii Museum and the Haida Repatriation Committee in northern British Columbia, Canada, SGaan Kwahagang (James Dean McGuire) is currently an Advanced Indigenous Conservation Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History. In this presentation, he will discuss the ways in which conservation knowledge and skills are expanding the tools and methods of his historical research as a community-based curator and educator, museum consultant, and repatriation specialist. McGuire’s close study and analysis of specific items in the AMNH collection is informing community understanding of the tumultuous period in Haida history around the turn of the twentieth century, and is inspiring contemporary artists to engage with the creativity and resilience of their ancestors.

SGaan Kwahagang/James Dean McGuire is a Haida citizen (of the Gak’yaals Kiigawaay Raven Clan of K’uuna Llnagaay), an Indigenous Fellow in Conservation in the Anthropology Division at the American Museum of Natural History, and a current delegate to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. A longtime member of the Haida Repatriation Committee and former Collections and Engagement Coordinator at the Haida Gwaii Museum, McGuire was part of the community-based curatorial team that prepared the Haida section of AMNH’s renovated Northwest Coast Hall. He was also a Prop Manager, Set Designer, and a Historical Consultant for the first feature film ever made in the Haida language, SG̱aawaay K’uuna (Edge of the Knife), which won 2018 Canadian Film of the Year at the Vancouver International Film Festival. In addition, he is a singer and dancer in the Skidegate dance group, Hltaaxuulang Guud Ad K’aaju (Friends Singing Together), and the lead singer and guitar player in the Haida punkrock band known as Jason Camp and The Posers.

38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

No registration required. Coffee and cookies will be served.