VICTORIANEWS VICTORIA Friends of the Earth
Look What’s Happening
Around the city and in various ways, people celebrated Earth Day 2012. Community, Page A3
A candlelight vigil at God’s Acre cemetery in Esquimalt will honour the war dead. Promotional feature, Page A17
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
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Looking to tell museum’s stories
Divers’ bravery saluted
Royal B.C. Museum CEO brings a wealth of experience to his new job
Just doing our job: medal recipients
Roszan Holmen News staff
Jack Lohman was first struck with the First Peoples Gallery when he travelled to Victoria in the 1990s for a research project in South Africa. “I came here looking at the way in which museums tell the story of indigenous people,â€? says Lohman, who replaced Pauline Rafferty as CEO of the Royal B.C. Museum in March. Back in 1999, Lohman was appointed CEO of a collective representing 15 national museums and based in Cape Town. “When I arrived, black people’s history was in the natural history museum and white people’s history was in the cultural history museum,â€? he recalls. Similarly, white artifacts were displayed on pedestals while African art was displayed in cases on the floor. “The first thing I did was put a “All these objects shutter down (on the displays) ‌ It was have come from the last bastion of Apartheid,â€? he says. Lohman’s post in South Africa somewhere. They’ve all represents only one of a long list of got stories and you’ve international experiences. His resumĂŠ got to think about what includes director of the Museum of London, chair of the National Museum is it we want people to in Warsaw, Poland, and advisor to know about ‌â€? the Museum of Slavery in Qatar and the Institute for National Museums of – Jack Lohman Rwanda. Speaking about his decision to come to Victoria, Lohman dismisses the suggestion that he’s accepted a position in a small and sleepy city compared to his previous engagements. “There is a challenge here,â€? he says. “Museums say they tell stories, but I really am interested to see. Give me an example of where they tell stories. I want to prove that you can.â€? While he compliments the museum’s exhibitry, he’s clear it falls short on its ability to communicate to its audience. With fresh eyes, he strolls through the displays, doling out both praise and criticism. “All these objects have come from somewhere. They’ve all got stories and you’ve got to think about what is it we want people to know about ‌ what do we want them thinking about?â€? PLEASE SEE: New museum boss, Page A10
WING’S
Erin McCracken News staff
Don Denton/News staff
New Royal B.C. Museum CEO Jack Lohman stands in the ethnography department with some items from the museum’s First Nations’ collection. The facility needs to do a better job of telling the story of indigenous people, he says.
Leading Seaman Patrick Moulden digs in the dirt of a wellworn footpath to unearth a homemade bomb that he must diffuse with only his bare hands. There is no time to call in his bomb disposal team or even don his protective suit. Moulden, a navy clearance diver from CFB Esquimalt’s Fleet Diving Unit, must work quickly so that a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter can safely land and transport wounded soldier Pte. Brock Blaszczyk to the Kandahar Airfield camp in Afghanistan. Minutes before, Blaszczyk stepped on an improvised explosive device on the same footpath. One of his legs just above the knee was vaporized, the other is in tatters. “What that meant for me as an IED operator, if I don’t act immediately, threat to human life is imminent, and so risk to the operator’s life is acceptable in that case,� Moulden said, recalling the most dangerous moment of his eight-month tour to the war-torn nation in 2009-10. “It’s called hand dismantle – I take the thing apart by hand and take whatever risk was necessary because he was going to die if I didn’t,� the Victoria resident said. PLEASE SEE: Navy men, Page A10
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