By David Putt
An exhibition on the Haitian vodou religion opened in November at the National Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. There are more than 300 spiritual/religious art objects and figures in the beautifully mounted exhibit, many quite stunning. Most are figures of the lwa (spirits) which are manifestations of the Gran Met (Great Master), omnipresent in the world. The exhibit begins with a brief history of the origins of vodou which came out of the merging of the beliefs of the Africans who came to the Americas, especially from Dahomey and Benin, with those of the Arawak and Taino natives, along with some Christian influences.
Vodou is a complex and changing religion and spiritual system that was and is central to the Haitian experience and world view. Vodouists have nevertheless been persecuted and marginalized through most of Haiti's history through periodic campaigns by the Haitian government and the colonial churches, both Catholic and Protestant. The 1987 Haiti constitution abrogated a 1935 law banning practice of vodou, and the religion was given official status by law in 2003 by the then-Lavalas government.
Vodou was central to the slave resistance and played an important part in animating the rebellion that culminated with Haiti's independence in 1804. It was also key in the Caco rebellion against the U.S. occupation of Haiti that was supported by the Catholic church. Part of the exhibit reviews the way in which vodou was caricatured as a bizarre cult during the US occupation from 1919 to 1934 and subsequently by Hollywood with zombie and voodoo doll clichés. Today, as referenced in the exhibit, vodou continues to be part of the resistance against the ruling elites in Haiti.
The exhibition was put together by the Fondation pour la preservation, la valorisation et la production d'ouevres culturelles Haitiennes (FPVPOCH) with the Museum of Ethnography of Geneva and Amsterdam's Tropenmuseum. The Canadian Museum of Civilization has added recordings of vodou ceremonies and other elements of vodou practice in Montreal.
Vodou is on at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa/Gatineau until February 23, 2014. For anyone interested in Haiti this is a fairly nuanced primer on the complex vodou practices and well worth seeing.
At the Canadian Museum of Civilization: Vodou
Rare artifacts reveal the real meaning of Haiti’s Vodou tradition
Gatineau, Quebec, November 14, 2012 — A powerful new exhibition opening at the Canadian Museum of Civilization brings to Canada, for the first time, over 300 objects from one of the world’s most important collections of Vodou artifacts. Vodou opens on November 15, 2012, and runs until February 23, 2014. This stunning exhibition looks beyond the myths and manufactured Hollywood images that are commonly associated with Vodou, to reveal a vital spiritual and social force that remains, for many, an important part of daily life in Haiti. Vodou is both a religion and a profound expression of the Haitian national experience, with rituals that remember the horrors of slavery and honour the spirit of resistance that has sustained Haiti through centuries of hardship.
“Through this exhibition, visitors are given a rare opportunity to learn about a complex spiritual tradition, its beliefs and rituals, from the viewpoint of the people who practice it,” said Mark O’Neill, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. “Visitors will quickly see that Vodou, as presented at the Museum, has very little to do with the Hollywood version, its zombies and pins stuck in dolls.”
At the heart of Vodou are more than 300 objects—including altars, drums and vivid representations of lwa used in vodou ceremonies—from the internationally-renowned Marianne Lehmann Collection. A Haitian born in Switzerland, the Lehmann Collection of over 2,000 pieces is now managed by the Fondation pour la préservation, la valorisation et la production d’oeuvres culturelles haïtennes, based in Pétion-Ville, Haiti. Three curators—the Museum of Civilization’s Dr. Mauro Peressini, and two founding members of the Fondation, Professors Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique and Didier Dominique—have created a special Canadian version of an exhibition originally presented in Europe.
The Canadian version of Vodou features Canadian-Haitian vodouists filmed during an actual Vodou ceremony, and in videos in which they explain their worldview, history and beliefs underlying Vodou practices. The curators worked in close consultation with members of Haitian-Canadian communities to help ensure the authenticity of the exhibition. The result is an experience that brings museum-goers into direct contact with Vodou artifacts and the people who use them.
Vodou is presented by the Museum of Civilization in collaboration with the Fondation pour la préservation, la valorisation et la production d’oeuvres culturelles haïtennes (FPVPOCH), in partnership with the Ethnographic Museum in Geneva, Switzerland and the Tropenmuseum in the Netherlands.