Pathways to Reclamation: The La Cloche Cataloguing, Learning and Sharing Project, Northern Ontario

For this collaborative project, 25 Anishinaabe individuals from communities on the north shore of Lake Huron have catalogued over 57,000 ancestral belongings from the La Cloche site — a former trading post in traditional Sagamok Anishnawbek territory. These belongings had been stored in dispersed facilities for decades until they were transferred to the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF) in 2014. The OCF and Sagamok Anishnawbek partnered with University of Toronto archaeologists, marking the first time that Indigenous people from the region have led the examination and care of these artifacts. The collection is now a dynamic resource that connects people with their heritage through a searchable catalogue. This initiative has inspired an upcoming exhibit at the OCF and aided the ability of Sagamok Anishnawbek to conserve the site and mitigate erosion. Emphasizing Indigenous sovereignty, the project integrates art, language and storytelling, shifting away from traditional academic formats to engage communities actively and creatively, reimagining archaeological practices.