What's inSight Fall/Winter 2016

FALL/WINTER 2016

CELEBRATING 130 YEARS

130 years ago John Fannin, curator of the first provincial museum, in his laboratory in the colonial administration buildings—better known as the Birdcages.

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FALL/WINTER 2016 FEATURE 130 Years of Collecting Treasures FEATURE An Institution for All of British Columbia FEATURE A Christmas Spirit FEATURE Collecting Carrs LEADERSHIP PROFILE Regional Chief Shane Gottfriedson Royal BC Museum Foundation FEATURE First Nations Repatriation Program The Social Page The Royal BC Museum’s PEACE Project Collection Roundup Community Partnership with Heart Education in a Changing World Peninsula Co-op VOLUNTEER PROFILE An Empowering Experience STAFF PROFILE Looking Back, Moving Forward CURIOUS Reaching Out This Week in History GOING DIGITAL Searching the Past in a Digital Way 130th Anniversary Fun Facts Ice Age Art Contest Winners Volunteering at the Museum What’s on Calendar PARTNERSHIP PROFILE Clipper Vacations Creating a Community Hub

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MANAGING EDITOR Jennifer Vanderzee Marketing & Sales Manager

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MAGAZINE COORDINATOR Leslie Johnson Membership & Marketing Coordinator

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David Alexander Head of New Archives & Digital Preservation Michelle van der Merwe Publisher

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Erik Lambertson Corporate Communications Manager Nathan Oickle 2D Graphic Designer

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Shane Lighter Photographer

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EMBERSHIP M EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Erika Stenson Head of Marketing & Business Development

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What’s inSight is an electronic magazine released four times annually, in March, June, September and December, by the Royal BC Museum.

In the interest of keeping our administrative costs low—and our carbon footprint small—this print version is also provided to members in digital format at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/magazine To switch your What’s inSight subscription preference from print to digital format, please email membership@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca or call 250-387-3287.

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Dear Friends, This issue of What’s inSight marks the 130th anniversary of the founding of the Royal British Columbia Museum—an institution that belongs to every single Canadian. Our museum is a large one, consisting of extensive archives and collections and supported by the extraordinary skills of our many volunteers and friends. It is a museum armed with a far-sighted mandate, one that was drawn up back in 1886 by citizens concerned that objects of great importance were being lost to museums elsewhere. Each year for the past 130 years, the Royal BC Museum has put on exhibitions, presented collections and archives, and contributed to the scholarly understanding of our province. But, as most readers know, the Royal BC Museum is more than a place for exciting exhibitions and we want everyone who connects with us to think more deeply about British Columbia.

Although most of our support comes from the Government of British Columbia and from grants like the MAP grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage, we are dependent on the general public for all of our outreach, programs and exhibitions.

Much of our budget goes toward maintaining and conserving an important collection that includes a large number of flora and fauna specimens, fossils, rocks and other inorganic materials, vast collections of art and historical materials and immense numbers of culturally significant First Nations artifacts. Our collection of archival photographs alone contains over 5,000 images. And our scientists, working in fields as diverse as entomology, ethnobotany, archaeology and anthropology, collaborate with partners across Canada to look at the ecological issues that confront our society.

Every day we extend our vision from the past to the present, seeking an understanding of this land, its wealth of history, its traditions and its systems of knowledge. It is this vision with which we hope to engage our citizens so that they see themselves, their stories and their identities reflected, explained and celebrated here. We have a rich and complex heritage in British Columbia—one that we want the world to know more about.

The Provincial Museum formally opened to the public on December 2, 1886 in a six metre by four metre room in the Colonial Administration Buildings, known as the Birdcages.

A vision for a revitalized and expanded Royal BC Museum and Archives.

Thank you for engaging with us and for all your support.

Professor Jack Lohman, CBE Chief Executive Officer royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 3

Dear Friends and Supporters, Every year almost a million people visit the Royal BC Museum—one of the most popular and best loved museums in Canada.

Members of the Royal BC Museum Board of Directors (L to R) Angela Wesley, Terry Segarty, David Adams, Heidi Dale-Johnson and Susan Knott, Board Chair.

For a full listing of the Board of Directors visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/governance

Overwhelming numbers of visitors come in the summer months and school children mainly come on field trips and outings during term time. Year-round, our visitors—young and old, alone or in groups—find the museum is an enjoyable way to spend their leisure time. The initial sense of exhilaration that tourists, locals, students and educators alike experience when they first observe the museum’s location next to British Columbia’s legislative buildings on Victoria’s Inner Harbour is followed by the dynamic learning experiences they discover within our numerous galleries and dioramas.

What the museum does has actually changed very little since it was founded 130 years ago. It still collects objects, specimens, stories and archival artifacts of all types and, behind the scenes, the countless scientists, archivists and curators who manage the museum’s detailed research program and care for our collections ensure their value is constantly communicated to the public. It still uses the latest techniques to bring these collections and the research around them to public attention. It still gets excited over new discoveries and opportunities to share its treasures with the public. Over its long history, the Royal BC Museum has built trust with many communities and developed deep relationships with supporters, often sharing authority and making decisions on content with those who know it best.

This is the spirit of the museum, past and present.

As Board Chair, I am proud to work with an institution that acknowledges its public duty in this way, using its position to inform, educate and create a sense of citizenship. I commend the museum’s staff and volunteers on their incredible work, and our supporters and stakeholders for their commitment to us. I sincerely hope that the work of the board will continue to contribute in some small way to the museum’s ongoing successful future.

Susan Knott Board Chair, Royal BC Museum

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130 Years of Collecting Treasures At the Royal BC Museum and Archives

By Caroline Posynick, Senior Registrar

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he Royal BC Museum was founded in 1886 by a group of 30 concerned citizens who wanted to ensure British Columbia’s natural and anthropological riches were preserved and protected from being removed from the province.

They accomplished this by signing and submitting a petition that requested the creation of a museum, and presenting the petition to Lieutenant Governor Clement Cornwall. With this document, the government was persuaded to provide a small room in the legislative buildings known as the Birdcages, which opened to the public as the Provincial Natural History and Anthropology Museum on October 25, 1886.

Since our founding, artifacts, specimens and documents have come into the Royal BC Museum and Archives collections through donations, deposits, annual specimen collecting and transfers. As a result, identifying the very first accession into the collections—and determining which of the disciplines can lay claim to it— takes some detective work.

So how does one identify the first artifact into our institution, especially as each collection had its origins independent of the whole?

Well, we can dig into the original registers that document the collections in the individual disciplines and then consider: Is the specimen with the earliest collection date the first? If so, there’s a BC barnacle from the late 1840s

in the invertebrate collection. Or perhaps it is one with an early collection number, like #1, Totem Pole, which is currently on display in the First Nations gallery. It was R.E. Gosnell, the first legislative librarian, who saw to the gathering and safekeeping of journals that documented the first sessions in Vancouver Island’s legislature—the origins of the Provincial Archives. It’s a hard call. Certainly all of the above qualify as our earliest collected items.

Whether good planning or not, it has remained true throughout our history that each discipline has its own philosophy of collecting. In 2003, when the museum and archives came together as a Crown Corporation, there began an effort to unify the provincial collections under one entity.

Then, in 2008, the Registration department was created to centralize the tracking of all objects, specimens and documents coming into the collections. Now when materials are offered for donation, the curator or archivist completes a standardized temporary receipt and provides it to Registration, where it is added to a centralized database with a tracking number. Proposed donations then go to the Collections Committee, where they are reviewed and discussed for their potential inclusion into the collection. If approved, and if they need a Deed of Gift, a document is created by Registration and sent to the donor for signature. Once returned the objects become museum property and are given an

Although they appear remarkably alike, these Scarab beetles—part of a recent donation to the entomology collection—belong to two different species.

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official accession number. All associated information on the donation is also provided to the discipline so that collection cataloguing may begin.

As you can imagine, it remains difficult to define the latest into the collection as donations are constantly coming in and being accessioned, and each discipline has its own rhythm to how it brings new artifacts, specimens, deposits or documents into its holdings. It’s almost unfair to highlight a single discipline when all but one (geology) are actively collecting. There are too many to list, but here is a snapshot of the most recent accessions into the archival, human history and natural history collections: Archives 2016.95 Original photographic and textual material relating to the James Bay Athletic Association, including a thesis on the history of rugby in Canada, a centennial publication, a box of records of the Vancouver Island Rugby Union, two scrapbooks and two boxes of James Bay memorabilia.

Human History 2016.117 Two sets of robes and cuff links once owned

by Westminster County Court Judge Donald Edwin McTaggart.

Natural History 2016.125 Ninety-seven Scarab beetles, pinned.

Identifying the first and the latest accessions in the collection does seem to depend on who is asked and how. For me, this is not a frustration but rather an indication of the wide scope of our collection— it feeds a yearning to know more about what we have in our provincial museum and archives. We have so much to celebrate and, with that, I wish the Royal BC Museum a happy 130th birthday.

This Haida house post from hlragilda ‘llnagaay (Skidegate), collected by James Deans in 1892, is associated with the Edenshaw family and is the very first object in our collection catalogue. RBCM 1.

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The Royal BC Museum and Archives An Institution for All of British Columbia

By Patricia E. Roy

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oday, the internet makes the knowledge and resources of the Royal British Columbia Museum and Archives accessible to the entire province and beyond. What did the museum do for British Columbia beyond Victoria before the internet? The short answer is, more than one might think. From their foundings in 1886 and 1908 respectively, the museum and archives collected flora, fauna, ethnographic material, artifacts and manuscripts around the province to display or study in Victoria. In return, they shared knowledge and resources with the province.

For decades, communication was mainly through the post office or express companies.

When public libraries were rare, the Provincial Library, from which the archives evolved, loaned boxes of books to small communities and individual volumes to students. The library continued to circulate books from its Open Shelf, but the archives stopped the practice in 1927. A Revelstoke resident complained of discrimination but then conceded the danger of losing irreplaceable volumes. The archives, however, continued to answer mail order inquiries. The museum received plants and animals for identification and advised people like a man in Rossland who feared losing his wife if he did not eliminate an infestation of garden snakes. The museum director suggested ways to reduce the snake population but warned him to prepare to lose his wife; snakes could not be completely eradicated.

For many years the archivist, the museum director and their staff gave public lectures in Victoria. In 1936, W. Kaye Lamb, the new 8

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archivist and librarian made a speaking tour of the Okanagan. Willard Ireland, his successor, travelled extensively giving lectures to arouse “interest in the preservation of the records of the past and in giving the people of the province a broader conception of our history.”

In the 1950s the museum adopted this practice when Wilson Duff, its first professional anthropologist, gave public lectures and advised local museums while touring the province to salvage totem poles. The poles were moved to Victoria where Mungo Martin and others carved replacements for the home villages. The museum appointed a full-time advisor to visit and assist local museums in 1966. Three decades later, the museum, reversing past practice, was repatriating culturally significant artifacts to the First Nations and offering training on their care.

The museum, always interested in research around the province, launched the ambitious Living Landscapes projects in 1994, cooperating with communities to research their natural and human history; to preserve information, artifacts and endangered species; and to offer “exciting opportunities for learning.” Studies of the Columbia River Basin and the Peace River followed a pilot project on the Thompson-Okanagan region.

From its early days the museum hosted school tours but children beyond commuting distance of Victoria rarely benefitted. In the 1970s it experimented with ‘Travelling Kits’ on Marine Biology,

early British Columbia history, the Interior Salish and the Kootenay people for distant schools. A teacher from the museum often accompanied the kits, which included artifacts, documents or facsimiles, photographs, films and a teachers’ guide.

The response was generally favourable, but the budget could not sustain it.

The Museum Train was popular with people of all ages and, between 1975 and 1979; it toured most of the province accessible by rail, carrying exhibits prepared by museum curators and display specialists. Alas, repair bills for the aged steam locomotive and ancient rail cars almost exhausted the museum’s budget.

Yet, the museum remained committed to outreach through more cost-efficient exhibits such as Dragonflies, The Legacy (a collection of contemporary First Nations art work) and Echoes of the Past, which travelled to smaller museums.

After operating on an ad hoc basis, the museum formally organized a speakers’ program in 1983 that visited both larger communities and those without suitable space for exhibits. In one of the first talks, Nancy Turner, an ethnobotanist, showed slides and artifacts and provided edible samples of ‘Wild Harvests’. In the 1990s, museum experts contributed to televised science programs produced by the Knowledge Network.

The long tradition of publishing handbooks and scientific works by museum staff and others continues. In addition, often in conjunction with major exhibitions and Collage of prominent BC citizens in the Free Spirit: Stories of You Me and BC exhibition, 2008.

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drawing on its own resources, the Royal BC Museum publishes lavishly illustrated scholarly volumes. New Perspectives on the Gold Rush, for example, accompanied the 2015 exhibit, Gold Rush! El Dorado in British Columbia. Such books preserve research, are souvenirs for visitors, and provide knowledge and vicarious pleasure for those who did not see the exhibit.

In a business plan submitted in 1991, Director Bill Barkley observed that the public wanted more programs in more places and ones that are “technologically sophisticated [and] interactive.” Technology has certainly enlarged the scope of travelling exhibits. In 2008, for example, the museum commemorated British Columbia’s sesquicentennial with the Free Spirit project. A museum exhibition on provincial

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history was only a part. Other exhibits went by rail through southern British Columbia and by van elsewhere. People could purchase an illustrated book with DVDs of archival travelogues. A website inviting people to contribute their stories through The People’s History Project drew 3.5 million visitors.

access to the internet can interact with the museum. After being shown at the museum in 2010, for example, Aliens Among Us, a study of invasive species, made a two-year tour to nine smaller museums. Through an interactive website, residents could report local examples of ‘aliens’ via smartphone or tablet.

The Royal BC Museum was one of the first Canadian museums to establish a website, allowing it to share treasures and knowledge beyond Victoria. By 2010, it was getting about five million hits a year; the museum has also built a presence on social media.

The archives has posted many historic photographs, some paintings of Emily Carr and other provincial artists and, to the delight of genealogists, the Vital Statistics records of births, deaths and marriages. Anyone with

Modern technology continues a process that dates back to the museum and archives’ beginnings—encouraging British Columbians to submit examples of natural and human history. Today, more than ever, they are institutions for all of British Columbia.

Mungo Martin, one of the 20th century’s most distinguished Kwakwaka’wakw carvers, at work on the Centennial pole presented to Queen Elizabeth in 1958. I-26829.

A Christmas Spirit Father Christmas in British Columbia

By Ann ten Cate, Archivist

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ith his flowing white beard, ruddy cheeks and jolly demeanour, the English figure of Father Christmas is the personification of Christmas, which is not surprising as early 20th-century renderings of Father Christmas —like this Christmas card from the O’Reilly family collection—were an artistic attempt to bring the Christmas spirit alive.

Father Christmas is definitely not the same character as Saint Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop and saint who would later morph into the Santa Claus we know today. Instead, Father Christmas has his origins in the pagan custom of celebrating and feasting around the winter equinox, and by the 15th century he was personified as a Yule-tide visitor and symbol of the spirit of Christmas.

A 15th-century carol refers to him as Sir Christèmas and the famous essayist Samuel Johnson referred to him as “old Christmas” or “Captaine Christmas” in the early 17th century. Later in that century he was held up as a popular symbol of feasting and good cheer by Royalists in reaction to Puritans who were trying to outlaw Christmas during England’s civil war. The first recorded use of the term ‘Father Christmas’ occurred in 1658 in The Examination and Tryall of Old Father Christmas, a publication written by Josiah King, a Royalist sympathizer. After keeping a low profile for the next couple of centuries, Father Christmas became popular again during the Victorian revival of all things Christmas.

They were also responsible for solidifying his appearance as an old bearded and robed man who often wore a crown of holly. One of his most famous appearances during this time was as the Spirit of Christmas Present in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

As the 19th century wore on, Christmas centred more on children and presents and Father Christmas took on a new role as a gift-giver. At the same time, Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas began to appear in English popular culture and the folkloric tradition of a Christmas figure that feasted and made merry began to merge with the American and European gift-giver who wore a red robe. Despite this influence, for most English children in the 19th and 20th centuries, the person who brought the gifts was still called Father Christmas. When those children and their parents immigrated to British Columbia they brought the spirit of Father Christmas with them—but American and European influences quickly prevailed and Santa Claus became the dominant figure. In my family we

welcomed Father Christmas in England, but after immigrating to Canada we agreed that it was more likely that Santa Claus, rather than Father Christmas, would find us in our new home. It was also very reassuring to find out that Santa Claus enjoyed exactly the same kind of beer that we put out for Father Christmas in England!

The Royal BC Museum celebrates the Victorian Father Christmas and the spirit of Christmas past in our Old Town. Have your photo taken and share your holiday wishes.

See Holiday Events on page 41.

A 1905 Christmas card image with Father Christmas and his crown of holly.

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Collecting Carrs A History of the Emily Carr Collection and Our Vision for the New Gallery

By Kathryn Bridge, Curator of History and Art

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he first Emily Carr painting acquired by the BC Archives came as a surprise. In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, two friends of the artist began collecting funds to purchase a painting from Carr.

They believed it scandalous that the government did not own an artwork by this recently ‘discovered’ artist and their intention was to present the painting to the province.

The 1912 piece Kispiox Village, with its bright, postimpressionist palette, was an excellent choice.

The donors collected the $166 the artist asked for and the Carr collection was born.

Subsequent acquisitions of Emily Carr’s art and documents were equally grounded in clear intention. When Carr died in 1945, the province purchased seven major works from her estate, reflecting both First Nations subject matter and the natural world and representing her artistic styles from 1912 through 1937. In 1962 the province purchased the estate of William Arnold Newcombe—Carr’s neighbour, friend and executor. It included over 100 of Carr’s earliest works and, notably, pencil, ink and watercolour works depicting Aboriginal children, villages and totem poles that she had made in the field.

The estate also included silver bracelets, model canoes, a rattle and other First Nations pieces collected by Carr and later obtained by Newcombe. In 1976 and 1981 12

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two significant deposits—the contents of a steamer trunk Carr bequeathed to her friend and literary executor, Ira Dilworth —brought Carr’s journals, her cartoon ‘funny books’, more than a dozen sketchbooks, thousands of manuscript pages, drafts for published stories, photographs and books from her library, and hundreds of letters from friends and business contacts. During the 1970s, ‘80s

and ‘90s the archives acquired many of Carr’s own letters, cherished by friends who knew their significance. Individual paintings, small hoards of photos, gifts received from the artist, mementos and memorabilia, pottery, hooked rugs and Kispiox Village, 1912. This oil painting was the first Carr painting acquired by the province.

Emily Carr painting; Pdp634.

audiotaped reminiscences of those who knew her have come into the collection over the past 50 years. We even have artworks created by Carr’s young students.

The research materials and notes of Carr scholars and writers provide yet another layer of documentation.

The Royal BC Museum and Archives holds by far the largest collection of materials documenting the life and times of Emily Carr and nearly every month we receive questions or information about other potential acquisitions. Among her 1,200 works of art are large oil paintings, sketchbooks, field sketches and preliminary works. Her written archives include literary manuscripts, private journals and correspondence.

It is not enough to hold this material. For many years the archives ran a satellite gallery dedicated to the artist and we continue to lend works to galleries for exhibitions world-wide. Next spring Sea and Sky will be exhibited alongside the work of other major impressionist artists in Paris.

But Victoria is Emily Carr’s hometown.

She was born here, lived most of her life just blocks from the museum, and died here.

We have long dreamed of creating a lasting tribute by building a permanent gallery to showcase the rich and varied collections we hold—to celebrate this national treasure—and we are making strides toward that reality.

The extent of our Carr collection and the strength of our staff’s curatorial scholarship allow us to provide unique and meaningful experiences for British Columbians and for the world, both on- and off-site. Our target audiences are provincial and national visitors of all ages but we also anticipate increasing international interest. For these reasons, we will create a venue that meets the international criteria for exhibition both in terms of preservation of art and objects and quality of the exhibition experience.

The Emily Carr Gallery will be a presentation space for the 21st century, allowing for immersive experiences and interactions with experts and providing an overview for international visitors who may

be experiencing Carr for the first time The museum will provide learning opportunities through special programs and events delivered throughout the year in support of the gallery itself. This new gallery will be a modern, fresh, appealing space; one that uses interactive media, virtual experiences, live feeds and video to create a behind-thescenes walkthrough of our storage vaults and archival containers.

The gallery will operate as a learning centre exploring Carr’s work and as a space to exhibit original materials. No one else does this—no one else really can. Our collection allows us to display finished works in a gallery setting alongside archival records— letters, diaries and manuscripts—presenting visitors with a sense of Carr’s private life and situation. This gallery will capitalize on our unique holdings and construct a space that is truly immersive—experientially, intellectually, visually and thematically.

The planning is well under way. Stay tuned.

Emily Carr and her sketching caravan, the “Elephant” parked at the south-west corner of Esquimalt Lagoon, 1934. D-3844.

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LEADERSHIP PROFILE

Regional Chief Shane Gottfriedson

By Erik Lambertson, Corporate Communications Manager

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n National Aboriginal Day 2016, in the Royal BC Museum’s First Peoples gallery, Premier Christy Clark announced that the provincial government would begin a conversation with Aboriginal peoples in British Columbia about the co-creation of a plan for the identification and return of ancestral remains and belongings of cultural significance.

A number of First Nations elders and leaders were present for the announcement, including Shane Gottfriedson, the Assembly of First Nations’ BC regional chief. Regional Chief Gottfriedson has long been active in fighting for the rights of First Nations people and his presence was a welcome one. We had the opportunity to speak with Regional Chief Gottfriedson in August to find out more about his path to leadership and his commitment to the tenets of truth and reconciliation.

Regional Chief Gottfriedson, who were your role models when you were growing up?

Growing up in Kamloops, my grandmother and grandfather, Mildred and Gus Gottfriedson, guided me and instilled within me the values I cherish today, from our traditional teachings to our cultural practices and protocols. My grandmother won the Order of Canada and she always set an example for myself and my family, setting the bar high and always ensuring that the people she interacted with felt important.

How did your leadership as Chief of the Tk’emlups First Nation prepare you for your role as Regional Chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations (BCAFN)?

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My grassroots focus—a focus on the First Nations peoples in my community—has informed my vision as Regional Chief (a position he assumed in June 2015). My 12 years’ experience as Chief, and three as Tribal Chief of our Nation, opened me up to the varied and diverse issues that face the community from education to health and wellness to rights and title. These issues transcend Tk’emlups and are shared by the vast majority of First Nations, not only in BC but in Canada.

My leadership took an incremental approach: I sat on a number of provincial and national committees, took the time to be grounded in the social, economic and quality of life issues facing First Nations people, and I took the time to develop my leadership capacity by surrounding myself with inspiring leaders committed to the issues that I’ve championed and that I continue to fight for as Regional Chief.

What responsibilities do you have as Regional Chief?

As Regional Chief I have responsibilities on both a provincial and federal scale.

Representing the 203 First Nations in British Columbia, I work collaboratively on improving social determinants as well as ensuring that First Nations fully participate in the economy.

Federally, I hold the Assembly of First Nations portfolios in justice, economic development, and murdered and missing indigenous women and girls; I also lead the Women’s Council and the management committee. With a

focus on reconciliation and friendships and partnerships, it’s my responsibility to support our people on their journey to reconciliation as we need to forgive and heal and learn from each other by creating a better quality of life.

What was your role in the Federal Court of Canada certifying a class-action lawsuit against the federal government by First Nations people who attended day schools?

First off, a day scholar was someone who went to school by day and went home by night—someone who endured abuse without having actually lived at a residential school. Kamloops was unique in this respect, given the proximity of the Kamloops Indian Residential School and the reserve lands, which enabled day scholars to live at home with their families.

As Chief of Tk’emlups, my council and I filed a class-action suit against Canada, in partnership with Sechelt First Nation Chief Gary Feschuck, because many of our community members were left out of the Indian Residential School Settlement (IRSS).

Our goal was to seek justice for our people on three fronts: we wanted to ensure that our day scholars were compensated; we wanted the descendants of day scholars, who too suffer from the intergeneration impacts of the residential school system, were compensated; and it was important that the federal government acknowledged the loss of language and culture, which cut deep into our community and was not limited to students who lived at the school. Day scholars also

experienced broken relationships, family dysfunction, the suffering from addictions and cycle of abuse.

The government of Canada had and continues to have a duty to all First Nations people who suffered and continue to suffer from the effects of residential schools. The damage is intergenerational and the IRSS was woefully inadequate, which prompted the class-action suit.

What role do you think Canadian museums can play in helping address the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC)?

The TRC has identified several roles that museums can play, identified in two calls to action. Recommendation 67 calls upon the federal government “to provide funding to the Canadian Museums Association to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of museum policies and best

practices to determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to make recommendations”.

This call to action should include the creation of a catalogue or database detailing all Aboriginal cultural items currently kept in museums across Canada. This project must receive enough financial and administrative support to track down the appropriate owners to either return the item, or receive consent from the appropriate owners to keep the item as part of the museum’s collection. Part of this process must include a fair and timely process for identifying who has the legitimate authority to receive the item, or to give consent for the item to remain with the museum.

Recommendation 68 calls upon the federal government, “in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, and the Canadian Museums Association, to mark the 150th anniversary

of Canadian Confederation in 2017 by establishing a dedicated national funding program for commemoration projects on the theme of reconciliation.” Museums could play a critical role in this recommendation to support public education and dialogue by mandating permanent and revolving installations in museums across Canada that are dedicated to Aboriginal cultures and reconciliation.

A similar idea was addressed under call to action 83, whereby the TRC called upon the Canada Council for the Arts “to establish, as a funding priority, a strategy for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to undertake collaborative projects and produce works that contribute to the reconciliation process.”

Museums could play a role by allocating and reserving spaces for these collaborative projects to be displayed for the public.

Regional Chief Shane Gottfriedson.

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Beyond these recommendations, another area in which museums could play a role would be in the employment of Aboriginal people. For example, museums could employ Aboriginal people from the traditional territory that the museums are located on to guide and share historical, local, and Aboriginal knowledge with visitors. This would support the TRC recommendation to eliminate employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians by employing Aboriginal people across Canada. Moreover, we need to begin repatriating artifacts back to their rightful Indigenous owners, and initiating a process for the development of First Nations-run museums and institutions that reflect each community’s identity and history.

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What messages would you like to share with the youth of your community?

It is essential for youth to become engaged with the upcoming and ongoing issues facing First Nations in BC and across Canada. We need to support and encourage our youth to be their best, so that they can be the leaders of tomorrow. I’ve made a commitment to empower our youth, to help raise the next generation of strong leaders, artists, activists and entrepreneurs, and I know that youth empowerment must start with engagement.

Engagement means hearing from the youth and supporting them to create resolutions that work for them and their communities.

This summer we began the process of

planning to host a BCAFN Youth Forum, to encourage dialogue among our Youth Representatives and facilitate real and positive change in our communities. I encourage all interested youth to get in touch with their representatives and see how they can contribute to this upcoming forum.

Regional Chief Gottfriedson, thank you.

You are welcome.

BC Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Shane Gottfriedson, Premier Christy Clark and Grand Chief Edward John (Hereditary Chief of the Tl’azt’en Nation) at the Royal BC Museum on June 20, 2016.

Royal BC Museum Foundation Who Are We?

By Cristi Main, Executive Director, Royal BC Museum Foundation

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he Royal British Columbia Museum Foundation began in early 1970 when Dr. Clifford Carl, the museum’s director, joined representatives from 10 local organizations whose aims were consistent with those of the museum to collectively create a new, entirely volunteer-run organization: the Friends of the Provincial Museum. Often referred to in early documents as ‘The Means Finders’, the Friends quickly grew into their name and became a financial and community support for the museum’s vision and development, raising over $3.2 million in funding for the museum in the 1970s. In those early years the Friends contributed to major museum efforts, including the construction of Old Town in the Modern History gallery and the restoration of St. Ann’s Schoolhouse.

The Royal BC Museum Foundation is a group of passionate individuals who inspire support for, and enrich the mission and vision of the Royal BC Museum.

For nearly half a century the foundation has supported the vision of the Royal BC Museum and it continues to be an integral asset to successful museum initiatives. The foundation carries out its mission through the conscientious management of donations and investments, the running of the Royal Museum Shop and dedication to the museum’s future plans in site development. The way that we attract donors and manage funds makes the foundation a unique organization

of which we are extremely proud.

This is demonstrated by the Royal Museum Shop, which operates year-round, providing the foundation with a healthy and reliable revenue source that enables it to effectively offset operating and administration costs. This means that 100 per cent of each donation goes directly to supporting the museum. These contributions are vital, and the foundation is thankful for the generosity of our donors.

Today the foundation—still primarily supported by volunteers—is in excellent financial health and is managing funds close to $8.5 million. We continue to support the vision of The Means Finders

and our primary mission remains the ongoing provision of financial support to the Royal BC Museum.

The Royal BC Museum Foundation would not be where it is today without the hard work of our many generations of volunteers—they continue to be as essential to the foundation now as at its inception. We are lucky to have such a diverse and talented group of dedicated individuals as a part of our cause, and the foundation is most grateful for their time and spirit.

The Royal Museum Shop originally opened for business in November 1970. Proceeds support the work of the museum and archives.

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A Renewed Commitment to First Nations

By Professor Jack Lohman, CEO

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anada may be on the precipice of real cultural change. Recently governments at all levels and cultural institutions have begun aligning to pledge substantive support for the cultural rights of Aboriginal peoples. As a world-class institution, the Royal BC Museum and Archives is uniquely positioned to help foster this cultural shift by facilitating connections and collaborating with First Nations communities, organizations and individuals. We are taking steps towards reconciliation—together.

On September 7, 2016 Premier Christy Clark announced that the Province of British Columbia was committing $2 million to the Royal BC Museum and Archives to assist Aboriginal peoples in BC seeking the return of their ancestral remains and belongings of cultural significance. This commitment supports a plan that we are co-creating with Aboriginal peoples, aimed at helping interested communities draw upon our expertise and professional connections with museums around the world.

The initiative may be global in scale, but it is rooted in the fundamental needs of those who live in BC—home to more than 200 distinct First Nations who represent over 30 indigenous languages. Their traditional territories spread through every corner of the province, their cultural identities as distinct as the geography of Canada.

The Royal BC Museum has a long and unique history of working with First Nations. These relationships are fragile. And it is possible that we could substantively reframe the conversation through the sustained development of 18

What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

progressive policies and programs created and implemented in full collaboration with First Nations. This goal may be ambitious, but we have already made steps toward it.

The first step was to sign a memorandum of understanding with the First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC) whose guidance and support is paramount to beginning the spiritual healing process.

Central to the success of our renewed commitment to Aboriginal peoples is the need to consult with communities across the province. The museum and archives will be better positioned to provide meaningful assistance through the development of a new repatriation program. This program will help build capacity for the involvement of all heritage practitioners across the province, and organizations that I believe are equally committed to the tangible support of First Nations.

From left: Royal BC Museum Curator of Ethnology Dr. Martha Black, CEO Prof.

Jack Lohman, Hon. Peter Fassbender, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and Tracey Herbert, CEO of the First Peoples’ Cultural Council at the third annual Cabinet-First Nations Leaders Gathering.

Together with the FPCC we are currently recruiting a head of department for the program and are working to re-align our archivists and our ethnology and archaeology staff to support this new department.

aggregation of public and private First

We will also establish a First Nations internship program to support youth in the development of skills enabling them to tell their own stories in their communities and beyond; connecting generations, fostering cultural respect and building a platform for dialogue and ongoing reconciliation.

extend our reach exponentially.

We will look to create a shared and accessible platform for the digital

Nations collections and archives around the world. Promoting and celebrating the vital First Nations cultures of BC has always been at the heart of our museum and archives, and digital technology allows us to

The museum will work with interested communities to advance the transfer of ancestral remains, grave goods and sacred objects held here at the Royal BC Museum and from other museums across the country and around the world. (continued on page 42)

The Social Page 1. Professor Jack Lohman, Board Chair Susan Knott and First Peoples’ Cultural Council CEO Tracy Herbert welcome Federal Minister of Culture Mélanie Joly and provincial and territorial ministers of culture and heritage to the Our Living Languages exhibition at their 2016 meeting.

2. Professor Lohman welcomes Lynne Platt, consul general of the United States in Vancouver, and Michelle Lee, consulate public affairs officer, to the gala evening for

1 2

Mammoths! Giants of the Ice Age. 3. Susan Knott, chair of the board, and the Honourable Peter Fassbender, minister of community, sport and cultural development, with Professor Jack Lohman in front of Kispiox Village, a painting by Emily Carr.

3

4. Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and Professor Jack Lohman admire a set of china once owned by James Cook’s widow, Elizabeth.

The collection was donated to the Royal BC Museum by the City of Victoria in July 2016.

5. Lyall Knott, Q.C. and Susan Knott, board chair, with Professor Jack Lohman at the Annual Kermode Gala for Mammoths! Giants of the Ice Age.

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6. The Honourable Suzanne Anton, Q.C., provincial minister of justice, with Professor Jack Lohman.

7. Professor Lohman opens Guangzhou to British Columbia, a photographic exhibition on the Chinese Canadian experience, in Guangzhou, October 2015. Present are Honourable Christy Clark, premier of BC; Wen Guohui, vice governor of Guangdong Province; and Honourable Teresa Wat, BC’s minister of international trade.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 19

The Royal BC Museum’s PEACE Project Towards Stewardship in a Time of Rapid Change

By Richard J. Hebda, Curator of Botany and Earth History

B

ritish Columbia’s Peace Region—vast, wild, diverse and deserving of our institution’s heightened attention—is the focus of a major Royal BC Museum initiative. The Royal BC Museum’s Peace Region Expedition and Community Engagement (PEACE) project demonstrates an innovative approach to environmental stewardship, an approach founded in the museum’s collaborative and collections programs with people in the province’s far-flung regions.

The museum’s initiative meets a critical need and a growing challenge. As the climate changes and humans demand more and more from nature, British Columbia’s unique and rich biological diversity is undergoing accelerated transformation.

The future of our globally exceptional

heritage demands thoughtful stewardship based on sound knowledge. The use of land, living resources and water must support the integrity of our ecosystems.

The people who live in and depend upon our living landscapes are well suited to such stewardship.

The project’s goals are to identify and chronicle the unique natural features of the region and their related cultural history, and to share what we learn with the diverse communities that live and work in the Peace, the people of BC and the world.

We hope to foster a sense of stewardship for this unique legacy and to inform vital decisions about the region’s natural resources and their role in community and economic development.

1.

For this project, the Peace Region is broadly defined to include the drainage of the Peace River—mountains, valleys and fertile plains—and most of the drainage of the Liard. Here species from the Rocky Mountains, northern forests and prairie grasslands meet in a landscape as magnificent as it is biologically and ecologically exceptional: patches of brittle prickly-pear cactus (Opuntia fragilis), for example, represent the northern-most cactus populations on earth. The region’s ecosystems originate in the ancient ice-free corridor and glacier-free peaks, and fossils chronicle life long before the time of the dinosaurs. The Peace Region represents a critical link in the Yellowstone to Yukon mountain super-biome of North America.

The museum has been involved with the Peace for many years. The resources developed through the Living Landscapes initiative of the 1990s, fondly remembered by the people of the region, continue to be used. Over the past decade natural history staff have collected thousands of plant, 1. Brittle prickly-pear cactus (Opuntia fragilis) on the south-facing slopes of the Peace River Canyon. Erica Wheeler photograph.

2. Attendees of Dr. Hebda’s lecture, “The Magnificent Peace”, gather at the North Peace Cultural Centre in Fort St. John.

3. Golden fall aspens (Populus tremuloides) colour the slopes and flood plain of Halfway River valley in the Peace Region Foothills.

Richard Hebda photograph.

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What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

insect and spider specimens, especially from remote alpine peaks of the northern Rocky Mountains. In June 2015 curators and collections managers participated in a bioblitz along the Peace River Canyon, sponsored by the Biological Survey of Canada, and added specimens and records of rare and endangered species from this rarely-studied part of Canada.

During the fall and winter we connected with the people of the Peace and began building relationships with Aboriginal communities, libraries, schools and museums. We were met with a warm welcome and strong interest—people want their stories and observations recognized and shared throughout the province. They also want the Royal BC Museum to share its research, programs and stories in their region.

Early May brought us to the Peace for three well-received events. Scott Cooper, Erik Lambertson and I delivered two evening lectures at Peace Gallery North and Public Library in Fort St. John and at the Tumbler Ridge Public Library, organized and facilitated by our project coordinator Melissa Knight. At a workshop held in the Atrium of Northern Lights College in Fort St. John, we were honoured to be welcomed to the traditional Dane-zaa territory by the School District 60 Spirit of the Peace Traditional Drummers. I delivered a live-streamed presentation and then community members were invited to share their knowledge, observations and concerns related to the landscape, biological diversity, water and wetlands, and special places. We learned about the richness of the region and some of the changes that have taken place, such as the recent decline of the caribou.

Research Centre welcomed us warmly into their exhibits. And, as if to emphasize the importance of the natural environment, we experienced the exceptionally early forest fires in the tinder-dry boreal forest first-hand.

Through the PEACE project, the Royal BC Museum aims to provide and develop knowledge, bring together

people and institutions, and foster critical discussions for a sustainable future.

The first two years of this project are generously supported by the W. Garfield Weston Foundation with matching funds from the Royal BC Museum Foundation.

For more information contact peaceproject@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca or visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/peaceproject

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3.

We were also fortunate to visit with representatives of the Treaty 8 Tribal Council, several Treaty 8 leaders and community members, and key educators from the Aboriginal Education Centre of School District 60. The Fort St. John Museum and Peace Region Paleontology royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 21

Collection Roundup Annual Expeditions to Develop our Natural History Collections

By Kelly Sendall, Head of Collections Care and Conservation

E

very year, the Royal BC Museum extends its collections with new acquisitions.

These come to us in various ways. The ethnology and modern history collections frequently receive offers of private donations, all of which are assessed for their relevance to current research, exhibits and programming. The archaeology collection receives new items as a result of our status as a provincial repository for archaeological material collected by permit, and natural history collections staff travel British Columbia collecting specimens

1.

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What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

that complement our representation of

methods: for example, it is now common

taxonomic and geographic biodiversity in

practice to remove a small sample of tissue

the province over time.

from animal specimens for molecular

Acquiring artifacts for the human history collection does not involve elaborate equipment or methods; collecting for the natural history collection does. The equipment and methods used—much of it developed by researchers or museum

analysis before exposing them to fixative, preservative or other chemicals. These tissue samples remain untreated or preserved in high grade ethanol and are stored at −80 degrees Celsius or in liquid nitrogen to preserve the DNA.

staff long ago—are varied and peculiarly

Tools for collecting can be divided into

fascinating and still the standard today.

two categories: those used for passive

There are also some very modern collecting

collecting, such as set traps, nets and

settling plates and those for active collecting, such as angling rods. A Malaise trap, used to collect flying insects, looks like a tent with a wall running along the spine and takes advantage of the habits of flying insects, yielding thousands of specimens in just a few hours. Insects fly into the central wall, bounce off and up in an attempt to escape, and end up in a container of preservative. Aside from processing the large numbers of samples potentially gathered, these traps require very little work from the collector.

with staff from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to explore shorelines for invasive species. Studies like this one are extremely valuable for documenting the introduction and spread of invasive species along the Pacific coast. The team also searches out populations of endangered species, such as the Northern Abalone and the Olympia Oyster. The central coast

Botany This year the botany crew went on a trip that took them to several alpine locations near Smithers, in north central British Columbia. In addition to acquiring specimens for our own collections, they contributed to a research project into the dynamics of pre-Ice Age species distribution in BC and the world.

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Another unusual tool is the Berlese funnel, used to collect small insects and relatives from moss and leaf litter that is collected and then transferred to the funnel back at the museum. At the top of the funnel, above the sample, is a incandescent bulb; at the bottom is a small opening that leads to a collecting bag filled with perservative. Over the course of a few days the insects travel downward to avoid the heat and light, and fall in the collecting bag.

The Malaise trap and Berlese funnels are examples of passive collecting—processes that let the equipment do all the work. For an example of active collecting equipment, take a look at the insect pooter on page 24.

The rubber end of the tubing is placed in the collector’s mouth and the hard plastic sampling end is pointed at a small spider or insect on the ground. The collector inhales quickly and pulls the specimen into the tube (a small piece of mesh ensures the specimen is not inhaled). A small puff of breath releases the specimen into the desired sampling container.

Below is a summary of some of the collecting activities from our 2016 field season, including examples of methods and tools used by collectors around the world.

Invertebrates Heidi Gartner, our collections manager for invertebrate zoology, started off her field season with a trip to the central coast aboard the CCGS Vector. Heidi is working

is a remote region and travelling there can be expensive, so the opportunity to collaborate with the DFO on these expeditions is a fortunate one. Heidi also collaborated later in the summer with Parks Canada and DFO, surveying select locations in Barkley Sound and documenting the effects of the invasive European Green Crab in the Broken Group Islands.

Specimens for the Royal BC Museum collection during these surveys are collected by hand and with shovels, scrapers, dip nets and crab traps. Marine and freshwater invertebrates added to our collection generally go through a three-stage process. First the specimens are relaxed, using either methyl crystals or freezing, so that they no longer respond to stimulus.

Once relaxed, they are fixed in formalin or ethanol before being transferred to ethanol for long-term preservation in the collection.

Plants are collected by hand, in their entirety if possible, and are placed in bags.

Back at camp, the specimens are spread out on a newspaper and placed between corrugated cardboard and foam in a simple device called a plant press. They must be dried quickly in order to prevent the growth of mould or mildew, which could destroy the samples. Colin Longpre, an exhibit fabrication specialist, has designed and built something to help with this: a portable, light-weight plant dryer. Plant presses are placed on top with a propane heater underneath.

1. Ken Marr and Erica Wheeler processing plants collected over one day in northern BC. 2. Prime collecting locations are often remote, but the support of Canadian Helicopters made access possible.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 23

1.

Entomology The entomology team accompanied the botanists this summer, taking advantage of a valuable opportunity for the collection of alpine spiders and insects. Our annual field surveys of spiders, which primarily target alpine and subalpine habitats, began in 2008 and have resulted in a large number of additions to the collection, including many new provincial, national and Nearctic records, and numerous undescribed species. The number of species recorded in British Columbia has climbed from 570 in 1988 to more than 850 this year, and more than 70 of the new records are Canadian or Nearctic firsts. Our work has attracted international attention and resulted in donations of important spider material.

Collaborative research with other scientists on spider ecology, taxonomy, systematics and faunistics has increased recognition of British Columbia as an important area of Nearctic spider diversity.

of our expedition, Pacific Coastal Airlines offered us three return flights from Victoria to Prince George for our crew. Many remote alpine locations are accessible only by helicopter and we must carefully consider the necessity of any gear or supplies proposed as cargo. This has been made easier for us by Canadian Helicopters who have offered us reduced fares in order to

The botany and entomology teams camped together in the BC backcountry about 350 kilometres from Prince George. In support

2.

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What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

assist our efforts. The Royal BC Museum is grateful for the contributions Pacific Coastal Airlines and Canadian Helicopters have made to our work.

1. Thanks to Pacific Coastal Airlines for flights to our staging area of Prince George.

2. Essential collecting tool, an insect pooter.

Community Partnership with Heart Children’s Healing Experience Project

By Janet MacDonald, Head of Learning

I

n November 2017, BC Children’s Hospital will open a new acute care centre on their current Vancouver campus. It will be a 59,458-squaremetre facility that will house the Emergency Department, Medical Imaging, Procedures, Intensive Care, Oncology and all inpatient units.

The BC Children’s Hospital Foundation (BCCHF) is working to enhance the interior design of the building and create a child-friendly healing environment.

Inspired by the success of new children’s hospitals in other major North American cities—most notably in Chicago—the BCCHF invited significant and iconic provincial arts organizations and museums to become community partners. The Royal BC Museum was asked to contribute inspirational content that celebrates and reflects BC’s natural history.

According to the BCCHF’s Strategic Partnerships Officer Danielle Semple, “This project’s mission is to create inspirational healing experiences that engage and comfort children, youth, family and staff and support health outcomes by integrating curated, purposeful arts to improve patient care and the physical environment.” Science World, the Vancouver Aquarium and Emily Carr University of Art and Design have all expressed enthusiasm about the project.

In April of this year we invited members of the foundation to visit the museum so we could share what we have to offer and gain a better understanding of the overarching intent of the project.

The scope of our ongoing discussions focuses on the 8th Floor Oncology unit—specifically

the public circulation areas where murals would be displayed. These 2D installations are meant to create the feeling of a home away from home and have patients see their home reflected in the hospital. With this key aim in mind, the team immediately gravitated to Carol Christianson’s artwork Splendid Diversity – 36 More Wonders of the World. It was commissioned for the Free Spirit: Stories of You, Me and BC exhibition celebrating BC’s 150th birthday and its stylized composition of 36 BC scenes presents a colourful visual that appeals to all ages. It seemed the perfect backdrop for the 18-metre long east-west lookout corridor that faces north to the mountains beyond.

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The graphic design will include photographic and illustrative overlays of BC flora and fauna from our collections. This use of imagery can assist clinical assessments of vision and test patients’ ability to follow commands referencing pictorial goal posts or landmarks.

We are also considering the use of animal tracks as a fun interactive, inspiring curiosity.

As this article goes to press, initial conceptual designs are being reviewed by patients, clinicians and various committees.

2.

It is early days but this contribution is the first in what we hope is a long-standing collaboration that aims to integrate, in future, more outreach programs for families in BC Children’s Hospital and other hospitals across the province. Stay tuned for an update in the next edition of What’s inSight.

1. Burgress Shale, Emerald Lake Yoho National Park.

2. Pocket Desert, Fraser Canyon.

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3. Garry Oak Meadow, Southern Vancouver Island.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 25

Education in a Changing World Teacher to Facilitator, Student to Learner

By Chris O’Connor, Learning Program Producer

to provoke curiosity. We want learners on their toes, leaning forward into their interests.

We want to cultivate a space for learners to critically think and actively do. Learning at the museum is not static or boring, it is dynamic and alive. And it is constantly shaped by every single visitor and their view point.

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T

he sands are shifting beneath our feet when it comes to how learning happens both in the classroom (formal setting) and the museum (informal setting). Traditionally, there has been a reliance on a vertical, one-way flow of knowledge: a single expert (teacher, curator) who delivers what he or she knows to the recipients of that knowledge. The recipients have very little say on what they are going to learn or how they will learn it; which is not necessarily inherently bad. There are times when a delivery model of expertise makes a lot of sense but, increasingly; there is a move toward flattening the learning process. It is acknowledged that we are in fact a community of learners and that information

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What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

flows in all directions. The educator in this case helps to facilitate dialogue and sets up a scaffolding of understanding that allowing for learners to make their own discoveries through inquiry. In this way learners own the process of their learning. They start to build the important skills of how to learn and how to think critically. In our changing world, this is vital. Facts can be googled; critical thinking, not so much.

At the Royal BC Museum, we feel very strongly about this inquiry-based approach.

We enjoy facilitating experiences but we are always crafting strategies so that kids and adults can do their own work when we are not there. Our role as museum educators is

Last year we upended our model of school programs to reflect our current values in learning and to respond to the changing BC curriculum. And we are so glad we did. We increased our engagement with classrooms (working with over 4,000 students in our guided programs) while deepening our connections to those learners and educators.

Our offerings consist of Trailhead Tours, which are volunteer-led school tours of both the Natural History gallery and the Modern History gallery. These tours allow students space to make their own connections while being facilitated through a series of conversations about big ideas. We also offer Learning Labs, which are staff-led school tours. These tours are more open-ended and very responsive to the needs of the educators. We take these sessions as a challenge to customize. We suggest some beginning points of curricular connection and then, through inquiry and question strategies, we go exploring with each class. This exploration usually takes us behind the scenes and always takes us to surprising places. Partnership is a focus for this year. We are exploring the city as a learning grid and working with many different organizations to collaborate and deepen our practice.

We can’t wait to get started again!

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Peninsula Co-op Penny Sopel, Marketing and Community Relations Manager, Peninsula Co-op

P

The offerings this year: Trailhead Tours (November to March, Tuesdays and Thursdays) • The Numbers of Nature: Making sense of data in an unstable world • Mammoth Thinking • Predator vs. Prey • Simple Machines: Museum as makerspace • Gold Rush: Photography and memory • Reading an Object • Helmcken Christmas Learning Labs (offered at different times throughout the year) •

Governance and Beyond (in partnership with the Parliamentary Education Office and with a focus on First Peoples Governance) – October and November

•

•

•

•

•

SOS: Steward Our Soil (in partnership with the Compost Education Centre) – April From the Beginning: Origin Stories and Indigenous Culture (in partnership with the Legacy Art Gallery) – May and June Between the Generations (in partnership with the Glenshiel Housing Society) – January to June Knowing Your Place: Empathy, Dialogue and the Power to Connect – January to June Let’s Talk: Customizable program offering – January to June

1. Looking at insects in the entomology collection area.

2. Making discoveries in the herbarium at the museum.

eninsula Co-op is a Vancouver Island based co-operative with our core business in grocery, petroleum and convenience stores. With 16 gas centre locations, a food centre, home heating and cardlocks on the lower island and in Comox, we employ over 320 full and part-time employees. Being entirely locally owned and operated we proudly share our profits with our member-owners, our community and our staff, which has been a part of our philanthropy since we opened our doors in 1977.

We contribute to the communities where we do business through our Community Support Program. In the last year, our program has contributed over $370,000 to more than 200 local charities, organizations, youth groups, student awards and community projects. The Royal BC Museum, which shares our ‘moving ahead by giving back spirit’, is an ideal partner for us.

We are excited to announce our support of the Trailhead Guided Tours Program for the 2016–2017 school year. The Trailhead Guided Tours Program gives teachers the choice of seven different themes. Our partnership allows for a discounted rate per class visit.

Congratulations to the Royal BC Museum on their 130th anniversary.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 27

An Empowering Experience Roaming Through History as a Volunteer

By Ruby Tang, Volunteer and Youth Now Award Recipient

S

ince childhood, walking through the galleries of the Royal BC Museum has evoked an incredible feeling of wonder within me. The artifacts and replicas seem to come alive with echoes of stories from the past.

I have had the opportunity to serve as a volunteer at this renowned institution for the past three years. As a collections research assistant for History Curator Dr. Tzu-I Chung I have undertaken a variety of research projects on BC’s ethnic groups, from compiling statistics and timelines to translating historical recordings from Chinese to English. I have also served as a children’s camp leader assistant where I helped lead activities for children to learn about historical and present topics and themes such as BC’s gold rushes.

Earlier this year, I was a recipient of the United Way of Greater Victoria’s Youth Now Award for which Dr. Chung nominated me, and the recognition has encouraged me to reflect on how my experience as a volunteer has refined my passions and values. Through my research I have been presented with a unique understanding of our diverse and vibrant province and reminded that the human experience is interwoven across time and culture.

Each project I have completed, each challenge I have encountered, and each person I have met through the Royal BC Museum has deepened my appreciation of our beautiful province, and I will endeavour to use what I have learned to contribute all that I can for the betterment of the community and those around me.

Ruby Tang, Royal BC Museum Volunteer.

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What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

Find your 2016-17

PROGRAM GUIDE online today!

Full of activities, exhibitions and special events for visitors of all ages.

ROYALBCMUSEUM.BC.CA/PROGRAMGUIDE

Looking Back, Moving Forward Standing on the Shoulders of our Predecessors

By Mairin Kerr, Communications Specialist

O

ne hundred and thirty years ago John Fannin, an avid outdoorsman and collector

with a talent for taxidermy, became the

first curator of the newly created Provincial Museum of Natural History and Anthropology.

By the time he retired in 1903 the museum had grown to include a taxidermy assistant and two attendants.

Today the Royal BC Museum and Archives has a staff of 132 people. We’ve had lots of new faces join us in the past year or so.

These talented people will be standing on John Fannin’s shoulders, building on the work he and his fledgling museum staff accomplished and creating achievements we’ll be celebrating at our next anniversary.

Find out more about our new staff members.

What surprised you when you started working at the Royal BC Museum?

Veronica Briet, Executive Administrative Assistant “One of the most surprising things was discovering the incredible amount of collections not in exhibition. An immense amount of behind the scenes work goes on at the museum and it takes a lot of planning— sometimes years—before it becomes real. It is wonderful to work in an environment where people are so passionate and team up to get things done in the best possible way.”

What remarkable project have you worked on so far?

Joel Blaicher, Exhibit Fabrication Specialist “Working from concept drawings provided by the design department I helped fabricate the ice wall that welcomes the visitor to the mammoth exhibit. A 12-foot tall by 30-foot wide representation of a glacier moving across a rock landscape with the Mammoths!

Giants of the Ice Age text protruding out of the surface and the BC coastline represented along the far left. Using a variety of materials, including fibreglass panels to simulate the rock and hand-carved spray foam to mimic the ice, I created the look and feel of the Ice Age. It was a great pleasure to be a part of this build and I look forward to the next challenge.”

New employees at the Royal BC Museum.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 29

(Looking Back, Moving Forward continued)

What unique skill(s) do you bring?

Paul Ferguson, Registrar “Martial Arts has allowed me to open my mind; to experience, appreciate and understand tradition and change. These values are shared by the Royal BC Museum team whose insight, determination and character mirrors the practice of Martial Arts self-discipline. The paths are similar; no limits but what we set for ourselves.”

What’s interesting about your job?

Angelica Pass, Development Coordinator “I have always been passionate about BC’s history and heritage. I have held previous jobs in both heritage conservation and fundraising, which on the surface could seem like very different fields. However, in my fundraising role at the museum, I am able to bring together these two separate passions. What could be better?”

What are you looking forward to in this job?

Leah Best, Head of Knowledge “I’m most looking forward to working with an exceptional curatorial team at one of North America’s leading museums. After working for ten years as an executive director, I am excited to return to my curatorial roots and to focus on the social impact of museums as civic and learning institutions.”

Dr. Henry Choong, Invertebrates Curator “I am thrilled to explore British Columbia’s rich biodiversity and to work with colleagues in a truly multi-disciplinary environment. I look forward to sharing insights and the wonders of the Royal BC Museum’s collections with our equally remarkable and diverse audiences.”

Mairin Kerr, Communications Specialist “What I love about my job is that social media is always changing and evolving. I really enjoy experimenting with new ways of communicating. I’m looking forward to sharing the museum’s story on the current and next generation of communication tools.

Instagram today, snapchat tomorrow and who knows what next.”

What do you love about your job?

Michelle van der Merwe, Publisher “I love my job at the museum because I get to do what I enjoy most—working with words—in an environment where I am constantly learning new things and working with brilliant and creative people to bring our extensive collection to life through language.”

What surprised you when you started working at the Royal BC Museum?

Joel Gibson, Curator of Entomology “I was aware that BC was a biologically diverse province, but unaware of the close proximities. I am able to go from beaches and tide pools to alpine meadows in a single afternoon. There are a bunch of fascinating microhabitats all within the greater Victoria area. Being from Ontario, the ocean shoreline and mountain environments are completely new to me. I am very excited about getting into these areas and looking in the collection to see the interesting insects from these areas.”

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What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

What’s interesting about your job?

Liz Crocker, Learning Program Facilitator “What isn’t interesting about this job? The great thing about working at a museum with a human and natural history collection and archives is that there is such diversity in what I get to do and learn about every day.

Woolly mammoths, indigenous languages, art, science, fossils, history—it’s endless.”

Nathan Oickle, 2D Graphic Designer “What I like the most about my job is getting to design projects promoting all of the different exhibits. The content I get to design with is engaging and the variety of projects I get to work on ensures that things never get repetitive. Plus, as the exhibits change it means there is always something new coming up.”

Michael Barnes, Head of Exhibitions “Leading our remarkably talented group of creative designers, technicians, fabricators and carpenters is an unbelievable privilege.

Individually, each of them are masters of their respective areas of specialty. However, when they combine their skills towards a common goal, such as the recent refresh of the Our Changing Past gallery, the results and the quality of work always make me incredibly proud.”

Emma Wright, Archives Manager “I am excited to learn more about the culture and history of all people in BC through my job; who they are/were and their experiences. I am passionate about promoting the archives to foster understanding and to ensure BC’s unique stories are preserved, told and heard.”

What makes you different from the others on this list?

Charles Lowry, Shipper/Receiver Although Charles is new to the Shipper/ Receiver position, he is not actually new to the museum. Before becoming the Shipper/ Receiver Charles was the Facilities and Operations Technician for a number of years.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 31

CURIOUS

Reaching Out Creating a Learning Resource for the Province

By Kim Gough, Learning Program Developer

C

urious is an online publication and app which collects essays, research, archival items and photography from Royal BC Museum curators, archivists and other experts. Each issue engages with a particular theme that is important to British Columbia residents and visitors. The latest issue of Curious examines the history of Chinese Canadian people in British Columbia and for the first time is available in Simplified Chinese at chineselegacy.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.

A Master of Museum Education Candidate at UBC, Kim Gough is a museum educator with the Royal BC Museum. You can find her on Twitter @GoughKim. Her work with the Royal BC Museum has included adult programs and the development of a smartphone app.

Now focusing on outreach, Kim is developing opportunities for people who cannot visit and explore the collections at the museum.

This is an excerpt from her article, “Reaching Out: Creating a Learning Resource for the Province”, which showcases the Royal BC Museum’s Outreach Kits: From 1909 to 1923, newly arrived Chinese immigrants were detained in cells in the hospital while government officers sorted out their paperwork. In the writings dated from 1911 to 1919, early Chinese immigrants used the walls that detained them to express their first experience in Canada, their aspirations for their new land, thoughts of family and homeland, and their sorrow and anger over their treatment.

Using the wall poems as the anchor for the kit, my next task was to identify primary source materials to help relay the experiences of early Chinese Canadians. The selection of the primary source material was a critical

step that involved going through hundreds of scanned documents from the BC Archives.

Luckily the process was aided by some expert guidance from Archivist Ann ten Cate and Curator Dr. Tzu-I Chung. Working alongside Bobby Orr, a teacher on contract, we printed select documents and placed them in a giant timeline then chose those that stood out for their content, emotional impact and aesthetic appeal. […]

You can continue reading this article in the latest issue of Curious: curious.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/reachingout-creating-a-learning-resource-for-theprovince/ For information on obtaining an Outreach Kit, please visit our website: royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/schools/writing-onthe-wall-outreach-kits Creation and distribution of the Chinese Historical Wrongs Outreach Kits is generously funded by the Ministry of International Trade and Responsible for Asia Pacific Strategy and Multiculturalism.

One of our Outreach Kits, designed to document and educate on the theme of historical wrongs against Chinese Canadians.

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What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

This Week in History Season Five

By Suzan Meyers, Marketing Assistant

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his Week in History—a weekly televised series presented by the Royal BC Museum and CHEK News—showcases British Columbia’s extraordinary history. Its two minute-long information-rich episodes delve into the stories behind artifacts, specimens and documents from our collections, which would not otherwise be available to the public. It offers a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the Royal BC Museum and Archives and allows us to reach audiences who may never walk through our doors.

This September marks the start of the fifth season and, once again, This Week in History explores a wide variety of content, including a topic suggested by one of our viewers—local author Dr. Nick Russell—who contacted CHEK about a bird’s-eye view watercolour housed in the basement of the BC Archives. This enormous piece, created in the 1890s, was signed by Annie Ross. Dr. Russell’s quest to learn more about painting and painter uncovered the fascinating story of a remarkable and virtually unknown BC artist.

Paintings are only one item found in the BC Archives and there are many other records of enduring value. For example, a January 1878 edition of the Daily Colonist contains an auction notice with a list of household goods. This list led to another interesting topic as it provided clues about the interior of the Ross Bay Villa—a heritage-designated building in Victoria that was built in 1865 and is one of only about 10 surviving city residences from before 1870. Simone Vogel-Horridge, chair of the Ross Bay Villa Society, has overseen

the interior restoration and will host this episode of This Week in History.

Moving from art and documents to insects, Curator of Entomology Dr. Joel Gibson explores the relationship certain insects have with seaweed. Winter might seem like a terrible time to go to the beach but, just like gardeners hoping to enrich their soil, many insects search out the piles of seaweed that build up on BC’s shoreline that time of year. We look forward to sharing this fascinating insight into insects and their love of seaweed.

Another highly anticipated episode will feature the intriguing story of the Kitty White collection. In 1924, Kitty White, an elderly First Nations lady living in Sooke, presented a collection of masks and a wooden chest to the Provincial Museum. The background is

provided by Curator of Ethnology Dr. Martha Black, who shares her deep understanding of First Nations cultures and connects these unique objects to this powerful story of family loss and rediscovery.

These are highlights from only four of the 26 episodes submitted for season five of This Week in History. The Royal BC Museum has a plethora of remarkable stories represented by the millions of artifacts, specimens and documents in its care—enough to keep airing episodes for generations to come.

To watch new and previously aired episodes visit, royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/twih Behind the scenes for This Week in History with Dr. Gavin Hanke, Curator, Vertebrate Zoology.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 33

GOING DIGITAL

Searching the Past in a Digital Way The New Genealogy Search

By Chantaal Ryane, Access Specialist

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at search-collections.royalbcmuseum. bc.ca/Genealogy

he BC Archives provides some extremely useful tools for tracing British Columbians of the past, including your own ancestors. Genealogy Search, featured on the archives’ website, is a treasure trove of family information ready for you to explore from the comfort of your own computer. The newly redesigned search is a wonderful resource for information about ‘vital events’—the registration forms used by the government to document births, marriages and deaths that occur in the province of British Columbia. Registration creates a legal record of the event. We host the registration indexes on our website but we also link to images of the registrations themselves. If the link to the registration appears, you can view the image online or download it without charge

Registrations are a valuable source of information, including the names and birthplaces of an individual’s parents.

However, in order to protect the personal information they contain, registrations are not released immediately to the public.

Birth registrations are unavailable for 120 years after the year of birth, marriages 75 years after the year of marriage and death registrations for 20 years after the year of death. Currently the Genealogy Search indexes contain births from 1854 to 1903, marriages from 1872 to 1940 and deaths from 1872 to 1993. Registrations for events occurring after these dates have not yet been released to the public.

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What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

Researchers can contact Vital Statistics (www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/life-events/ order-certificates-copies) to inquire about copies of these registrations. Some baptism records from 1836 to 1888 are also available to be searched.

Most people using Genealogy Search are researching their family history.

We’ve included some basic search tips right on the Search page, and we’ve also provided a Help icon that links to a handy Search Guide. Don’t be intimidated by all the fields provided—you can fill in as many or as few as you choose. Just remember that the less information you provide, the wider your search, and the greater the number of results. If you get too many

a pleasure to host visiting . Our collections benefit ly from the shared results, try to limit your search by filling in nd knowledge, and as more fields. , we broaden our own It’s notBut justperhaps genealogists who search these nderstanding. records.

Other antly, this is what the researchers find them an are for – toinvaluable share, toresource study,for historical research, especially since they can search by ely, to learn more about the location, gender, or date range. Statistics d. compiled from these registrations, whether

by the Vital Statistics Agency or by historians, can be used to track trends and identify patterns. menev and Natalya

the Royal BC Museum’s Users ion microscope andare delighted that many of the registrations software to examine and have been scanned and linkedclam. to the search result. This makes ails of a deep-sea

the research process much faster than scrolling through reels of microfilm, which users had to do previously. Although we love to see you in the reference room using the microfilm, we realize that in the digital age users are looking for more online resources that they can access from home—wherever ‘home’ is. The Genealogy Search helps meet that demand.

Museum Complex  HR MacMillan Space Centre

 Robert Bateman Centre  Roedde House Museum

Royal Museum Shop Intriguing and Unique

Royal BC Museum members and IMAX Royal BC Museum members & IMAX season season pass holders receive 10% off all purchases.pass Use coupon code:receive member10% off all purchases. holders

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/shop

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Your purchases support the Royal BC Museum. royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/shop No Admission Required.

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Shop hours 10 – 5 daily Tel 250 356 0505

1. Previously, these records were only accessible on reels of microfilm in the reference room. With our new Genealogy Search, you can search for and view digital copies of vital events registrations from anywhere.

2. The marriage registration of BC author Ethel Wilson documents her family origins and those of her husband, Dr. Wallace Wilson.

250-480-4887 visit www.imaxvictoria.com 2.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 35

130 Fun Facts O

n October 25th the Royal BC Museum turned 130. Here are some fun facts from our 130 years.

1862. The first curator of the Royal BC Museum, John Fannin, was lured to BC by the gold rush. learning.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/pathways/ bcs-gold-rush/ Late 19th century. The formidable Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie once shot Royal BC Museum curator John Fannin by mistake.

1891. The museum has been publishing books since 1891 when John Fannin published Check List of British Columbia Birds. royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/about/publications/ about-publications 1904. White bears—thought to be a new species of bear—were named Ursus Kermodei after Francis Kermode, the curator of the Royal BC Museum. learning.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/pathways/ wolverines-to-whales/kermd02g/ 1939. Due to the war, legendary nautical explorer Thor Heyerdahl was unable to

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return to his home in Norway after his honeymoon in the Marquesas Islands.

Heyerdahl stayed in Victoria and worked at the museum until he was able to return home.

Canada’s role in the liberation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/visit/exhibitions/ cultural-precinct

1941. During the Second World War, the plan—in the event of a bomb landing in the museum—was for botanist George Hardy and artist Frank Beebe to smother the ordnance using sand or remove it with shovels. Luckily this action was never required. learning.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/ pathways/british-columbia-remembersthe-great-war/

1972. The night before the Modern History gallery opened the wooden cobbles in Old Town had to be removed and replaced. They had been cleaned with water, which caused the wood to swell and created a very uneven surface. royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/visit/exhibitions/ modern-history-galleries

1951. A young Fenwick Lansdowne was given a summer job at the museum as an assistant to Clifford Carl who saw his talent for illustrating birds.

Lansdowne went on to become a renowned wildlife artist. royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/collections/naturalhistory/ornithology 1967. The Carillon (bell tower) was given as a gift to the museum from the Dutch community of BC to celebrate Canada’s 100th birthday and as a thank you for

2.

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What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

2005. Woolly hasn’t always been in an open diorama; prior to 2005 he resided in a glass box. learning.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/pathways/ mammoth-proportions/

1. John Fannin, the museum’s first curator, measuring and recording the size of an elk in the former courthouse—the museum’s second home, ca. 1889.

2. The Woolly mammoth being constructed in its case, ca. 1978–79.

3. Chief Justice Sir Mathew Baillie Begbie, 1875.

A-01099

3.

Ice Age Art Contest T

his summer kids around British Columbia were invited to draw, sketch or paint a creature from the Ice Age for a chance to win a trip to the Royal BC Museum to help us celebrate our 130th anniversary.

Twenty winners were chosen on October 4, representing a cross-section of age groups throughout the eight regions of BC.

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Winners were flown to Victoria to take part in our celebration and enjoy a behindthe-scenes tour. They were also invited to become ambassadors of the Royal BC Museum for their schools, wherever they live in the province.

We’re looking forward to the next 130 years as your provincial museum, taking pride in our collective histories and providing a hub of community connections for all British Columbians.

For more information visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/130

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3.

1. Malia R., age 6, Kamloops.

2. Fiona S., age 9, Victoria.

3. April R., age 15, Coquitlam.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 37

NEW from the Royal British Columbia Museum THE SUSTAINABILITY DILEMMA Essays on British Columbia Forest and Environmental History The Sustainability Dilemma opens a window into a time of changing social attitudes often at odds with government agendas and looks at two of the more controversial issues British Columbians have faced over the past 60 years, revealing both the innovations and frustrations of BC’s Forest Service during this period.

Available online, at the Royal Museum Shop and at your local bookstore.

$34.95 978-0-7726-6974-2 For more information on Royal BC Museum publications, visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/publications

38

What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

Volunteering at the Museum The Royal BC Museum is an Exciting Place

By Holli Hodgson, Volunteer Services Manager

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roundbreaking research. World-class exhibits. Programs to examine and explore our historical narratives from diverse cultural perspectives. The Royal BC Museum does so many things for so many people—from partnering with a local secondary school to interrogate our galleries in light of the new BC curriculum to launching a brand new website that showcases our province to the world.

We honour indigenous heritage with an international-award-winning exhibition on languages, developed in partnership with First Nations; we share and celebrate stories of the Chinese Canadian experience; we even play host to a baby Woolly mammoth.

All of these things happen on a property that includes an exhibition building, research areas, a conservation lab, a public reference/research room, art and special effects studios, a full carpentry shop and millions of artifact and archival collections—all situated in beautiful Victoria, steps from the Inner Harbour.

Staff at the museum and archives are proud of the work they do, the relationships they’ve forged and the partnerships they support with the community and the public.

But none of this would be possible if it weren’t for our donors. Donors are part of our family and support us in many ways: membership, sponsorship, planned giving, philanthropic donations and valuable time and experience. Our 132 staff members are supported by over 500 volunteers—volunteers who donate their time, energy, passion, expertise and 46,000

hours every year, in the all areas of our museum and archives. Even the members of our Board of Directors are volunteers!

Our Museum Hosts and the outgoing personalities at the Information Desk, Coat Check and Royal BC Museum Shop are familiar to many, and our Learning team delivers exceptional programs and tours to our visitors. Less known to the public are the behind-the-scenes volunteers who assist with managing the collections, caring for our archival holdings, supporting business operations and preserving the history of British Columbia.

In addition to offering a fabulous environment with interesting work and really great staff to work with, we strive to show our appreciation to our volunteers through our annual Volunteer Recognition Ceremony, free gallery admission, discounts in the shop and IMAX store, training events and the opportunity to make a difference.

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2.

To explore upcoming volunteer opportunities, visit royalbcmuseum. bc.ca/support-us/get-involved/volunteer/, contact the Volunteer Services Manager at hhodgson@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca or call 250-387-7902.

1. Lisa Miller and Raymond Graham supporting work in the paleontology department.

2. Anne Tuominen and Misha Whittingham working with fossils in the paleontology department.

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 39

What’s on EVENTS & LECTURES NEW! Museum Happy Hour 5:00–7:00 pm $10 per person I 10% member discount November 10 – On the Homefront November 17 – New Ways of Looking November 24 – Press Record Fieldtrippers Join us for themed outdoor field trips led by museum staff and community collaborators.

Birding the Bay November 5 I 10:00 am – 12:00 pm In-seine: Sailfins, Shrimps, and Sea Slugs!

December 12 I 7:30–9:30 pm Life on Marine Debris January 14 I 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Owl Outing February 4 I 7:30–9:00 pm By donation Lest We Forget —Remembrance Commemorations Performance-based presentations by musicians, singers and storytellers, and outreach school programs. Finalized schedule available in October. Check our calendar for details at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/calendar November 10–11 | 12:00–3:00 pm Included with admission or membership All commemorative events are supported by the Veterans Affairs Canada Community Engagement Partnership Fund.

An Un•Expected Conversation Art and Public Spaces: Cultivating Creative Culture Join Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and local creatives to discuss how to make our city and its public spaces more vibrant and interactive.

November 23 | 5:00–7:00 pm Clifford Carl Hall | Free Presented in partnership with the City of Victoria.

Have We Got a Story to Tell—Big Beasts!

Our popular Moth Radio Hour-inspired storytelling event.

November 30 | 7:00–9:00 pm $12 per person | 10% member discount

MUSEUM HOURS: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm daily Sequoia Coffee Mon – Fri I 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Sat – Sun I 10:00 am – 5:00 pm Early Shift: Going Away Party for Mammoths Join us for a going away party for the ages.

December 31 | 6:00–9:00 pm $24 per adult | $16 per youth 10% member discount Letter-Writing Week This New Year’s, resolve to slow down a little.

Why not sit down and write a letter at our letter-writing booth?

January 2–8 | 11:00 am – 2:00 pm Included with admission or membership Night Shift: Wild Romance Explore the allure of instinct, passion and love with an evening of live music, presentations and adult-only crafts.

February 11 | 8:00 pm – 12:00 am $35 per person | 10% member discount

Food Truck Festival, Fall/Winter Hours Mon – Sat I 11:00 am – 3:00 pm

For the Love of Writing Using archival documents, we’ll explore the ways of communicating—and even write a letter or two.

January 8, 15, 22, 29 | 1:00–3:00 pm Our Multicultural World Discover the ways that culture is expressed across BC. This month we celebrate Chinese New Year, Black History month and International Mother Languages Day. February 5, 12, 19, 26 | 1:00–3:00 pm Included with admission or membership Presented by

SPRING BREAK CAMPS

Family Day Get a sneak peek at our hands-on interactives for the upcoming Family: Bonds and Belonging exhibition.

February 13 | 1:00–3:00pm Included with admission or membership

Aspiring shutterbugs can develop their skills by participating in a photography-inspired camp.

March 20–24 and 27–31 | 9:00 am – 4:00 pm $224 per person Ages 7–11

Open Mic Storytelling Series: International Mother Languages Day Examine the diversity of First Nations languages in British Columbia with special activities and presentations in the Our Living Languages exhibition.

February 21 | 1:00–3:00 pm Included with admission or membership

LIVE @ LUNCH

WONDER SUNDAY Our Wonder Sunday family series now takes place every Sunday.

Creeping and Crawling This month we celebrate the animals of Halloween.

October 16, 23, 30 | 1:00–3:00 pm Massive Mammoths Think big … really big. Explore how mammoth teeth and tusks are both very heavy and very cool.

November 6, 13, 20, 27 | 1:00–3:00 pm A Season of Celebration Hanukkah, Christmas, Potlatches and Solstice are just a few of the ways that people around BC come together.

December 4, 11, 18 | 1:00–3:00 pm

Free | First Wednesday of the month Newcombe Conference Hall The Great War and BC Photographers Curator of Images Don Bourdon brings the perspective of BC photographers into focus.

November 2 | 12:00–1:00 pm Filmmaker Stanley Fox Archivist Dennis Duffy features BC filmmaker Stanley Fox and some excerpts from his earliest footage and films.

December 7 | 12:00–1:00 pm Insects Sea to Sky Meet our new Curator of Entomology, Dr. Joel Gibson. Discover why he finds insects so fascinating.

January 4 | 12:00–1:00 pm Lizard Invasion Curator of Vertebrates Dr. Gavin Hanke examines the rapid spread of the European Wall Lizard in British Columbia.

February 1 | 12:00–1:00 pm

FRIENDS OF THE BC ARCHIVES LECTURE SERIES $5 per person Free for Friends of the BC Archives Newcombe Conference Hall A Perfect Eden: Encounters by Early Explorers of Vancouver Island Michael Layland will introduce his latest book, a companion to his 2013 The Land of Heart’s Delight. These stories create a multilayered tale of discovery, exploration and encounter, from pre-contact through 1858.

November 20 | 2:00–3:00 pm

HOLIDAY EVENTS 10th Annual Carol-Along with the Carillon Gather under the Centennial Carillon with your fellow singers and Provincial Carillonneur Rosemary Laing for a one of a kind carolling party.

December 4 | 4:30–5:15 pm Free Father Christmas in Old Town Visit with Father Christmas in Old Town. Have your photo taken and share your holiday wishes.

December 2–4 | 11:00 am – 3:00 pm December 9–11 | 11:00 am – 3:00 pm December 16–18 | 11:00 am – 3:00 pm Included with admission or membership Photo by donation

EXHIBITIONS & INSTALLATIONS Mammoths! Giants of the Ice Age Only until December 31, 2016 Lead marketing partner

Our Living Languages: First Peoples’ Voices in BC On now In partnership with

Pocket Gallery Clifford Carl Hall Exhibits change regularly. Please check our website for current information.

For a full listing of what’s happening at the Royal BC Museum, view our calendar online at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/calendar Information correct at time of printing. Subject to change. Please visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/calendar for most up-to-date information. Prices do not include applicable taxes.

DID YOU KNOW? Royal BC Museum members enjoy up to 20% off admission at more than 25 partner attractions. Just flash your membership card to receive your discount!

View the full list of partners at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/reciprocalpartners ADDITIONAL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS INCLUDE: • Unlimited admission to galleries and exhibitions • E xpress entry • 10% discount on Guest museum admission (up to two per visit), special events, programs and services, all items at the Royal Museum Shop, regularly priced items at the National Geographic Store • 2 0% discount on single feature IMAX Victoria theatre tickets • Quarterly What’s inSight magazine • E xclusive Kids’ Club program for members only

Christmas in Old Town Enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas long ago. Visit the wood-cobbled streets laced with festive garlands and see the shops decked with seasonal finery.

November 11 – January 9 Included with admission or membership Helmcken House Old-Fashioned Christmas Step through the doors of the oldest house in British Columbia, still on its original site, and experience what Christmas would have been like in Victoria over 100 years ago.

December 17–31 | 12:00–4:00 pm Included with admission or by donation

royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 41

PARTNERSHIP PROFILE

Clipper Vacations

By Scott Meis, Vice President of Marketing, Clipper Vacations

T

hirty years ago we created Clipper Vacations with a mission—to develop custom travel adventures that highlight our Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada and create unforgettable experiences. Our first endeavour was the Clipper ferry service to Victoria, British Columbia on high-speed catamarans, enabling passengers to walk directly from downtown Seattle to downtown Victoria.

Our customers sail through the natural paradise of the Salish Sea aboard our signature catamarans, getting up close and personal with magnificent Orca and Humpback whales while soaking in the scenic beauty of Vancouver Island and its extensive network of coastal towns. The newest addition to the Clipper family is the Songhees Seafood & Steam food truck.

With a menu that incorporates the Songhees Nation’s craft and care of food preparation with a modern twist, the food truck is an accessible touchpoint in downtown Victoria where you can discover an important part of Victoria’s culture and community.

At the heart of Clipper’s operation is a concierge service that tends to the customer’s travel journey from beginning to end. We are known for our well-informed travel experts, all of whom are passionate about sharing their knowledge to guide visitors on the best possible journey across the Pacific Northwest. Over the years we have enjoyed our partnership with the

Royal BC Museum because we share a commitment to telling British Columbia’s stories to the world and inspiring curiosity and wonder about this beautiful region we call home.

(A Renewed Commitment to First Nations continued from page 18) We will consult with First Nations communities to update the narrative and bring contemporary views in a refreshed and transformed First Peoples gallery.

I acknowledge these plans are ambitious.

But you would never expect less from a world-class museum and archives. In order to define the aims and goals of this new program, we will be hosting a strategic 42

What’s inSight Fall/Winter 2016

summit next year; inviting representatives from First Nations leadership and cultural institutions, academia, provincial and federal government, museums and schools to come together; to define key issues, priorities, approaches and best practice.

Today, leading museums of the world are less repositories of nostalgia and more agencies of reconstruction. They have the

power to share and reshape narratives and make sense of the often confusing and conflicting elements of the past.

The Royal BC Museum and Archives can become a powerful agent of social change through the province. By confronting key challenges and building new relationships with First Nations, founded in respect, we will transform the museum and help build tomorrow’s society.

Creating a Donation Form Community Hub Yes, I am pleased to help the Royal BC Museum renew its community spaces with my tax deductible gift of:

By Chrystal Phan, Major Gifts Manager

W

e constantly work to improve our programs so we can adapt to meet new needs, and engage and inform our visitors in ways that inspire them. We have now reached a point in our 130-year history where this requires us to look beyond exhibitions and collections to reimagine our community spaces. We are seeking to elevate them to the standard we hold for our exhibitions and collections, but we need your help to do it.

Curators, researchers, students and people from all walks of life gather at our museum to share knowledge, innovation and inspiration throughout the year. They come here because they can experience cultural and natural history, make connections with one another, discover our shared past and imagine the potential of our shared future.

Now picture these connections being made in renewed, welcoming spaces that are purpose-built to deliver high-quality programs and lectures. Our work began this autumn with the Newcombe Conference Hall, to be followed by the Archives Reference Room.

Refreshing these key public areas will allow us to do more to deliver quality lectures and increase our educational offerings—even to ’beam’ those sessions anywhere in the world.

Please donate today to help us create improved multi-use community spaces. Your generous support is vital to our continued success.

$

MONTHLY GIVING I prefer the convenience of giving monthly using my credit card.

Please take a payment on the  1st or  15th of each month in the amount of $_______________ (Payments can be discontinued at any time by calling 250-387-7222)

LEGACY GIVING

 I am interested in receiving information on leaving a gift in my will to help strengthen the future of the Royal BC Museum.

NAME

STREET ADDRESS

CITY & PROVINCE

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VISA

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Newcombe Conference Hall.

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CHEQUE (please make payable to the Royal BC Museum Foundation)

Please return the completed form and donation to the Development Office via our box office, or mail to: Development Department Royal BC Museum 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, BC V8W 9W2 You can also donate by phone at 250-387-7222 or online at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/support.

The Royal BC Museum Foundation is a non-profit organization under the legal authority of the Societies Act (RSBC 1996, C. 433). The personal information collected on this form is subject to the Personal Information Protection Act (SBC 2003, C. 63). The personal information collected will be used by the Royal BC Museum Foundation to maintain our donor list, issue tax receipts and publicly recognize your donation. Personal information collected will be shared with the Royal BC Museum to provide you with up to date information on current events/exhibitions. If you wish to access or correct your personal information, or would like to make an inquiry about the Royal BC Museum’s privacy policies and procedures, you can contact our Information and Privacy Officer by mail, email: privacy@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca or by telephone: 250-356-0698.

Charitable #: 118933241RR0001

ONLY IN NOVEMBER Buy one membership and get another one for

50% OFF!

Start your holiday shopping early and join at the Box Office today.

Royal BC Museum members receive great benefits which include unlimited access to three feature exhibitions: Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age until Dec 31, 2016 Terry Fox: Running to the Heart of Canada Apr 12, 2017 – Oct 1, 2017 Family: Bonds and Belonging Jun 2, 2017 – Oct 31, 2017 Royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/join *Some restrictions apply. Offer applies to in-person purchases made from November 1–30, 2016. 50% off discount is applied to membership of equal or lesser value. Full contact information is required for all gift memberships at the time of purchase. Offer not valid for gift card purchases. Not valid for IMAX. Not valid with any other offer.