When 109-year-old Giidaahlgudsliiay (also known as Susan Williams) died in Skidegate, B.C., in 1970, her community lost an irreplaceable link to the past. Giidaahlgudsliiay was one of the last surviving Haida to have been tattooed as a youth in her people’s traditional way, before church missionaries cast a cloak of shame over this once-esteemed custom. By the time of her death, the tools used to outline clan crests on the arms, legs and chests of high-status individuals had long since disappeared.

Last spring, however, researchers working on a television documentary discovered a collection of Haida tattooing instruments dating back to 1883—including skin-pricking devices, paint brushes and a paint-grinding stone—in storage at the Smithsonian Museum. Many Haida hope to see these artifacts returned home.

Repatriation of the tattooing instruments is important, says Council of the Haida Nation representative Captain Gold, “to honour our ancestors.”

Lucille Bell of the Old Massett Repatriation Committee anticipates a strong interest in replicating the original tools. Today, she says, many Haida visit modern tattoo parlours to get tattooed with crest designs. Repossessing the technology once used to indelibly mark rights of passage could lead to a kid k’aalang (tattoo) revival.