Montreal museum brings together unprecedented collection of historical wampum belts

Hundreds of years after being given to European nations by Indigenous peoples from across the northeast, a collection of wampum belts have returned to Canada for the first time.

Forty wampum belts dating back to the 17th century that are currently held in public and private institutions across Europe, Quebec, and Ontario are part of a new exhibition, Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy, at Montreal's McCord Stewart Museum.

It's a historic moment for Jonathan Lainey, curator of Indigenous cultures at McCord and a member of the Huron-Wendat Nation.

"We believe that by having all of them here … in one big room, is an amazing and once in a lifetime opportunity," he said.

Wampum are tubular beads made from white and purple quahog shells. In addition to being used ornamentally or ceremonially, wampum were also woven into belts as mnemonic devices in history, traditions, laws, and diplomacy between nations.

The exhibition, which is co-developed by the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris, features several objects that were held in France, the Vatican, and and institutions across Canada. Thirteen belts come from McCord's own collection.

"These objects have been in collection in France for 400 years, for some of them, and they lost part of their history," said Emmanuel Kasarhérou, president of the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac.

"That's why it was a very important collaboration with McCord and the Seneca Cultural Center … for the people to be able to see them for real but also to reconnect with their own history."

However, little is known about many of the belts.

"It's unfortunate because these belts had a lot to say," said Lainey.

"When the keepers of those belts presented them publicly, they could speak about them for hours… But now the only thing we have is sometimes the name of the collector."

The Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac held its own wampum exhibition last year, and collaborated with Indigenous curators like Lainey and Michael Galban, curator of the Seneca Art and Culture Center in Victor, N.Y.

Galban said an important part of the collaboration meant ensuring the belts be accessible to the nations who made them, which is why they were brought to the Seneca Art and Culture Center earlier this year.

"These belts… they are begging to be read," said Galban.