Now a well-known department store chain, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was created in 1670 to exploit the fur trade in the vast Canadian hinterland. For centuries, it operated a network of forts and trading posts across much of North America and bore a wide variety of colonial responsibilities before Canada became an independent nation.
In March, it announced it was bankrupt and seeking creditor protection.
Given its considerable role in colonising Canada, HBC amassed a massive collection of around 1,700 works of art and 2,700 artefacts over its corporate lifetime.
In April, the judge overseeing its bankruptcy ruled it was “reasonable” for HBC to proceed with an auction of these items.
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC)—the authorised representative of all 63 First Nations in the province of Manitoba and their 172,000 citizens—opposes the sell-off, and other Indigenous groups and academics have expressed concern.
“The HBC has had a very complex and evolving relationship with many Indigenous communities, and no doubt the collection includes many trade goods, intercultural gifts and keepsakes,” Norman Vorano, an associate professor of art history at Queen’s University in Kingston, says.
“It probably includes ceremonial goods because ceremony was part of trading relationships between HBC and Indigenous traders, particularly from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
