The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) reopened with two feature exhibitions on June 13 after being closed since January 2023 for seismic safety upgrades.
MOA’s recent closure was part of a series of seismic safety upgrades — funded in part by BC’s Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills and the Government of Canada — to the museum’s Great Hall. The Great Hall’s upgrades began in November 2020 to increase the safety of patrons and the museum’s collections in the event of an earthquake.
“MOA is the first museum in Canada retrofitted with base isolation technology to protect the museum's collections in the event of a major earthquake,” read a June press release.
The Great Hall, according to MOA Director Susan Rowley in a press release, was completely rebuilt to incorporate 25 base isolators under each of the Great Hall's concrete columns. These columns restored architect Arthur Erickson’s original 1976 design.
Rowley also said the displays in the Great Hall and other MOA gallery spaces “have been revitalized and reinterpreted, in collaboration with First Nations communities and families whose objects and belongings are housed at the Museum.”
“The completion of the seismic upgrades ensures the preservation and safety of this cultural heritage for future generations.”
MOA’s first feature exhibitions since its opening are To be seen, to be heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965 and Pursuit of Venus [infected].
In the O'Brian Gallery, Māori artist Lisa Reihana's Pursuit of Venus [infected] is a panoramic video projection which shows encounters between Europeans and Polynesian people played by actors. The video serves a unique sensory experience to its audience. Accompanying a layered soundtrack, the video’s background consists of lush green hand-painted landscapes in stark contrast with the foreground’s live characters, allowing for a unique multimedia feel.
Held in the Audain Gallery, To be seen, to be heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965 is a multimedia exhibition which explores the ways Indigenous communities worked to have their rights recognized during the potlatch prohibition period in Canada.
The exhibit includes black-and-white archival photos from various archival collections across BC, including Queen Elizabeth II being presented Cowichan sweaters in 1959, Shirley Pettis being crowned Totem Princess by retiring princess Marina Assu in 1957 and a nuu-chah-nulth truck float in a 1929 Dominion Day Parade. These images give exhibit-goers a glimpse into how Indigenous people in BC expressed Indigeneity in urban spaces, as Indigeneity was — and continues to be — stigmatized.
“Looking back through rich archival material reveals the diverse ways that First Nations worked to be seen and heard striving to have their rights recognized—rights to their lands, their laws and their future,” read a MOA press release.
Reihana's Pursuit of Venus [infected] closes on January 5, 2025 and To be seen, to be heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965 closes on March 30, 2025.
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