Haudenosaunee Confederacy retrieves sacred objects from Geneva museum

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Haudenosaunee Confederacy retrieves sacred objects from Geneva museum – CBC

by ahnationtalk on February 16, 2023449 Views

Feb 16, 2023

Medicine mask, turtle rattle were in museum’s possession for almost 200 years

After almost 200 years sitting in Switzerland museums, two sacred objects belonging to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy have returned home from overseas.

A delegation from the Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee travelled to Geneva, Switzerland, last week to retrieve a medicine mask and turtle rattle from the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève (MEG).

“It was like the mask was sleeping for 200 years and the mask is now coming back awake,” said Kenneth Deer, who is Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Kahnawà:ke, south of Montreal, and was a part of the delegation.

The Haudenosaunee, who include the Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Kanien’kehá:ka and Tuscarora Nations and live on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, view medicine masks as living beings.