The Rooms commits to dropping Mary March from museum name
Museum says it will consult Indigenous groups on the change
After years of petitions and complaints, the head of Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial museum network has committed to changing the name of the Mary March Provincial Museum in Grand Falls-Windsor.
Anne Chafe, the interim CEO of The Rooms, said the change was identified as part of a process to decolonize the institution.
"We knew through our workings with the Indigenous communities over the years that the name was problematic," Chafe said. "The approach was to look at the content first, update the content, work with the Indigenous community, and then look at the name."
Mary March is the English name given to Demasduit, a Beothuk woman who was taken captive by Englishman John Peyton Jr. in 1819.
She was captured during a raid, authorized at the time by Newfoundland's governor, on the Exploits River. The raid was meant to recover fishing tools that were allegedly stolen, as well as to capture a Beothuk person as a way to establish a relationship with the Beothuk people, according to historian and author Ingeborg Marshall.
Demasduit begged for mercy, and tried to escape. Her partner, Nonosabasut, was killed trying to free her.
Peyton was acquitted of murder by a grand jury, and Demasduit died a prisoner, a year after her capture.
According to the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, Gov. Charles Hamilton renamed Mount Peyton in his honour in 1820, for returning Demasduit's body to Red Indian Lake.
Both Demasduit's and Nonosabasut's graves were later robbed and their remains taken to Scotland. Those were repatriated to Newfoundland and Labrador in March, nearly 200 years later.
Name given 'out of honour'
According to Andrew Barker, a ward councillor for the Qalipu Mi'kmaq First Nation, the Mary March Museum was named by a group of volunteers in the 1970s as a way to recognize the history of the area.
"They gave the name Mary March out of honour. It wasn't disrespectful," Barker said. "If they hadn't done it, we wouldn't be talking about it."
Both Barker and Mi'sel Joe, Sagamaw of the Miawpukek First Nation, believe Mary March should be dropped from the museum, in favour of Demasduit.
"Once they change that name, I think, I believe, people will flock to that museum," Joe said. "Because the name [Demasduit] means more than what's there right now."
Chafe said The Rooms has been working with an Indigenous curator to update the museum's exhibits, and wouldn't change the name of the museum itself without a consultation.
"Our approach at The Rooms is that we don't speak on behalf of the Indigenous cultures," Chafe said.
"To change a name, and convert that to Demasduit without consulting the Indigenous community I think, would be, yet another form of colonization."
Chafe said the redevelopment of the Mary March Museum is part of a three-year plan, and was formed before growing calls to change names and statues throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. Earlier this week the provincial government announced it would do away with the name "Discovery Day" for its June holiday.
More development needed
Indigenous leaders say it's a start, but only part of what should be done — both at the museum, and in the community.
"A better facility, a longer season, if you're doing those things you can change the name — great," said Barker.
"But if you're just going to change the name and ignore it all, then really it's just tokenism."
Barker said he believes something should be done to reopen a Beothuk recreation site that had a short life behind the Mary March museum in the 1980s.
That site was created, in part, by Don Pelley and Lloyd Seaward, and was managed by the Exploits Valley Tourism Association.
"The first year we had it here, we hired four students," Pelley said.
"I think, if my memory serves me, the first year that we had it here we had about 10,000 visitors through the replica village."
"We had a winter wigwam there, a rock-based wigwam, a smoke house."
Pelley said that after he left the group, the village fell to the "back burner," and was eventually locked up.
Perhaps, he said, it was a victim of oversight.
"In the '60s and the '70s, probably up to the early '80s, there was no real emphasis placed on the Beothuk culture," he said.
"They were doing a bit out there with the provincial archeology office, but not a whole lot."
Pelley said he couldn't convince any group — not the municipal government, the provincial one, nor a trail association — to take it over. And it's still not clear who is responsible for the locked-up land now.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation and Works said his department believes The Rooms owns the land, but The Rooms said in a statement it doesn't. The Exploits Valley Tourism Association is defunct, and hasn't filed paperwork with the provincial government for decades.
Other changes needed
Both Barker and Pelley said this type of attraction would be a great education resource for children, and could spark more interest in Beothuk history.
Joe said a critical look should also be taken at some of the names of geological landmarks in the area, like Mount Peyton.
"Changing the Mount Peyton into something that is more meaningful to the Beothuk people, I think, is the appropriate thing to do," he said.
"It's like the Mount Peyton is the statue of the Peyton that murdered those Beothuk people a long time ago, and it's there as an honour. It's not. It's a symbol of what happened."
Both John Peyton Jr. and his father, John Peytontook part in the raid on the Exploits River that killed Nonosabusut.
Further, after Demasduit's and Nonosabasut's neice Shanawdithit was captured by William Cull, she was sent to be a servant in John Peyton Jr.'s home.
Joe said he's started to petition government authorities to change the name of Mount Peyton.
In the meantime, he said truly reckoning with the sometimes difficult history in Newfoundland and Labrador is a good place to start.
"No matter where you go, every institution on this island has some kind of racism in it," he said. "I've seen it and lived it.
"But to me, the longer we stay quiet and don't say anything, or just ignore it, then we have no one to blame."
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