Nuu-chah-nulth: Treasures on Display

February-March 2000

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Alan Wilson

The current featured exhibit at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria-entitled "Out of the Mist: HuupuKwanum/Tupaat, Treasures of the Nuu-chah-nulth Chiefs"-is one not to miss.

Nuu-chah-nulth wolf headdress

With the clever use of light and shadow, you feel you're glimpsing images out of the mists of time, a forgotten culture emerging from the fog shrouded rainforest of the west coast.

HuupuKwanum and Tupaat, both Nuu-chah-nulth words, describe a chief's "storage box" in which is kept all inherited rights-names, dances, masks, and privileges. Many of the treasures from these "storage boxes"are found among the exhibit's artifacts and historical records.

The exhibit is the cooperative venture of the Museum and the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. The artifacts and stories tell of the long continuity of culture and technology, which goes back 2000-3000 years.

The Nuu-chah-nulth culture never died, and is alive in many forms from the tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, up the west coast of Vancouver Island, encompassing Barkley Sound, Clayoquot Sound, Nootka Sound and Kyuquot Sound.

The modern works done by current First Nations artists interspersed with archival objects also demonstrate that this is not just a museum culture but very much alive.

The 241 piece exhibit include a Nuu-chah-nulth canoe mask, a wolf headdress which has been in one family for 15 generations, a carved ceremonial bowl, and an enormous painted ceremonial curtain covering an entire wall in the museum. Some items have never before been on public display.

Seventy-five archival photos add context to the items presented. And strategically placed videos screens create viewing corners where one can rest and watch archival and recent footage.

The exhibit makes clear that whaling played an important role in traditional Nuu-chah-nulth culture, and it is useful background to the debate concerning whaling by the Makah of Washington. While I prefer the image of visitors peaceably viewing the whales from ancient canoes, with First Nations guides, there can be no denying the past. These were truly brave people who confronted leviathans from their dugout canoes, with wooden spears, handmade rope and stone and bone tools.

The Treasures of the Nuu-chah-nulth Chiefs exhibit was created to attract interest from other museums and it is already booked in the USA for showings when it closes in Victoria at the end of April, 2000.

Permanent First Nations Galleries

This exhibit serves as a wonderful extension of the permanent First Nations exhibit in the Museum, which should be viewed on the same visit if possible. If you don't get to Victoria till after the Nuu-chah-nulth Treasures exhibit closes, be sure to see these permanent galleries which give an even broader picture of the complex cultures of the coast.

The permanent galleries have a wealth of displays, including a large replica of a First Nations Big House (of the coast), a Pit House (of the interior), walls covered with castings taken from petroglyphs around the province, countless artifacts, canoes and paddles, a mask display with commentary which explains ceremonial uses, and much more.

At one point in these galleries, the passageway narrows to a small, semi-enclosed curved space, and you find yourself surrounded with huge faces of First Nations men and women. Their enormous eyes stare at you out of the past, while a recording solemly tells of the fateful year, 1862, when smallpox struck and wiped one half of the Tsimshan people, two thirds of the Kwagiulth, and three quarters of the Haida-some 20,000 people, perhaps a third of the entire native population of BC.

Much was lost, but out of the cultural embers a new fire is arising. The culture, the Nations, have survived and the flame is starting to burn brightly again.

Be sure to check out the Museum's excellent website: http://rbcm1.rbcm.gov.bc.ca/

Also check out the show on Wolves in the Imax Theatre in the Museum, which has a First Nations connection.

The Royal BC Museum is open daily, 9am to 5pm, located at: 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, British Columbia. PO Box 9815 Stn Prov Govt, Victoria, British Columbia V8W 9W2. Phone: 250-387-3701. Toll Free: 1-888-447-7977. Recorded Info: 250-387-3014.