Victoria's Royal BC Museum awards grants to 21 indigenous communities for repatriation projects

Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site in British Columbia
©SueFrausePhoto (2005)

The Royal BC Museum's Indigenous Advisory and Advocacy Committee (IAAC) has announced that funding will be granted to 21 First Nations communities across British Columbia to support their work in repatriation. 

The grants will be used to support a host of repatriation activities, from establishing planning committees to facilitating the return of ancestral remains to home communities. A total of $586,160 will be distributed among the 21 First Nations communities, cultural societies and associations and museum societies. 

"Museums around the world, including the Royal BC Museum, have a moral obligation to support indigenous communities engaged in repatriation," said Prof. Jack Lohman, CEO of the Royal BC Museum in Victoria.

Examples include the K'omoks First Nation, which is using their funding to build a community grave house, build a database for repatriated items, construct cedar burial boxes, establish a repatriation committee and conduct cultural ceremonies. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation is using its funds to develop a Repatriation Policy and repatriate Ancestral remains (the "Little Lady" from Simon Fraser University). 

The repatriation grant program is a first in Canada, part of an ongoing collaboration between the Royal BC Museum and Indigenous communities throughout BC. The program addresses the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the direction provided by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The repatriation grant program was made possible through the Province of BC's investment of $2M to the Royal BC Museum in 2016 to develop a First Nations department and repatriation program. 

More information about the program, including a list of recipients and their projects goals, is available on the Royal BC Museum's website. 

Seattle Art Museum presents first major US exhibition by Haida artist Robert Davidson

Last week, the Seattle Art Museum opened the first major US exhibition of work by Haida artist Robert Davidson. The 67-year-old Canadian artist's work has been pivotal in the revitalization of Northwest Coast Native art. Robert Davidson: Abstract Impulse is on view at SAM through February 16, 2014. The exhibition features Davidson's recent works, along with key works from his early career. 

In 1969, Davidson erected the first totem pole in nearly a century in his ancestral British Columbia village of Masset, located in Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands). He has since worked for more than 40 years absorbing the bedrock art traditions of Haida art and craft. He first learned from his great-grandfather, Haida artist Charles Edenshaw, and gradually explored new directions within the highly disciplined structure of the old Northwest Coast models -- in wood sculpture, ceremonial arts, jewelry and prints. 

Abstract Impulse showcases Davidson's recent forays into abstraction in his easel paintings, graphic work and sculpture. Using non-traditional media, he pushes the colors and forms of the Haida art form, making him one of the most important Northwest Coast Native artists working today. The exhibition features 45 paintings, sculptures and prints that Davidson has created since 2005, along with works from his earlier years. 

The Seattle Art Museum has an impressive collection of historic Haida art, including key pieces by Davidson's ancestors. "We are especially pleased to present Davidson's contemporary work and connect it to the culture that he has worked so hard to revitalize," said SAM's Kimberly Rorschach. Davidson most recently had a retrospective exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1993. Another Haida artist's works, Charles Edenshaw (1839-1920), are at the VAG in an exhibition that runs through February 2, 2014.

Following its three months at SAM, Robert Davidson: Abstract Impulse will travel to New York's Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian from April 12 to September 28, 2014.

"Robert Davidson is one of Canada's most respected and important contemporary visual artists. A Northwest Coast Native of Haida and Tlingit descent, he is a master carver of totem poles and masks and works in a variety of other media as a printmaker, painter and jeweler. He is best known as an impeccable craftsman whose creative and personal interpretation of traditional Haida form is unparalleled. His distinctive style is appreciated by the Haida community and contemporary arts scholars alike, with many of his works considered post-modern masterpieces. His work is sought by collectors internationally." Robert Davidson | Eagle of the Dawn Artist LTD.

Window on Canada : Haida Heritage Centre official photo

Thanks to the nice folks at the Haida Heritage Centre for sending along a photo of the new centre. I haven't had the opportunity to experience it yet, so here 'ya go!

Haida Heritage Centre complete, officially opens in Skidegate, BC

Exploring Gwaii Haanas with Bluewater Adventures. Photo by Sue Frause. 

The Haida Heritage Centre officially opened last month in Skidegate, British Columbia after 15 years of planning and development. The centre sits on land that was set aside more than 30 years ago, on the site of the old seaside village of Kaay Llnagaay.

Although the centre has been operational since July of 2007, the official grand opening ceremony on August 23 marked the completion of the facility. It includes new exhibits on Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and the Haida Heritage Site.

Haida Heritage Centre is a 53,000 sq. ft. cedar complex consisting of five contemporary monumental timber longhouses. The centre houses the expanded Haida Gwaii Museum, Performing House, Canoe House, Bill Reid Teaching Centre, Carving Shed, gift shop, cafe,meeting rooms/classrooms and additional temporary exhibition space. Fall/winter hours begin September 19 and run through April 30, 2009. They are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10-5 (closed on Sundays-Mondays).

Haida Gwaii, known to the Haida as Islands of the People, is a diverse archipelago of more than 150 islands located on the northwest coast of British Columbia. They are also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. Nestled below the Alaskan Panhandle and separated from the BC mainland by Hecate Strait, the Haida people have lived here for more than 12,000 years.