MOA MAGAZINE Issue 02 Summer 2016
Museum of Anthropology at UBC A place of world arts + cultures
FROM THE DIRECTOR British Columbia is in the midst of an intense bout of cultural revitalization that is increasing opportunities to share our collective artistic heritage with more and more communities across the province. The March opening of the Audain Art Museum, the new Gordon Smith Gallery and the construction of a new home for Presentation House Gallery at the Foot of Lonsdale promise world-class museums and educational facilities that stand with the very best. The three institutions will add enormously to the string of museums and cultural centres that have opened or expanded since the 2010 Winter Olympics: the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler; the Nisga’a Museum in Laxgalts’ap; the Musqueam Cultural Centre in Vancouver; the reenergized Haida Gwaii Museum in Kay Llnagaay; the Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre
j MOA Director Anthony Shelton signs an MOU with Dr. Andrew Moutu, Director of the Papua New Guinea National Museum & Art Gallery. Photo: Rob Maguire.
in Cape Mudge; Alert Bay’s U’mista Cultural Centre; and our own much expanded and dynamic Museum of Anthropology. By working together, museums and galleries can help improve the cultural and artistic integration of the province and build an infrastructure that promotes the sharing of collections that remain unequally concentrated in our southern cities. MOA is proud to be part of this provincial renaissance. Heidi Swierenga is leading student documentation and conservation projects for the Hastings Mill Museum. Sue Rowley, myself and Chris Arnett worked with the Nlaka’pamux Nation, the French Consulate and the Peter Wall Institute on British Columbia’s first international conference on rock art that was hosted in Lytton on May 28th. Gerry Lawson and Ann Stevenson, along with the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, have provided digitization training to 19 First Nations community organizations across the province, and earlier this year, as part of our community loans program, Karen Duffek and others took three of the museum’s masks to Alert Bay to be part of a potlatch ceremony. MOA also has an international reach. We were delighted in March to sign a memorandum of understanding with the National Museum of Papua New Guinea, the third Pacific Island organization with which, thanks to Carol Mayer, we have formal ties. Over the past three years Nuno Porto has developed close links with the National Museum and the Folklore Museum, both in Rio de Janeiro, and the Goeldi Museum in Belém, all
CONTENTS three of which are assisting in curating a future exhibition on the Amazon. Fuyubi Nakamura has called on her extensive network of Asian contemporary artists both for her recently closed Taiwanese exhibition and others she is developing. This dynamic between the local and the far away also benefits the growth of our collections. Individual and institutional donors and benefactors now not only come from British Columbia but from the whole of North America and other parts of the globe. The result of the largely invisible work of building and extending our networks is evident in the exhibitions, programs, publications and artist visits that you can learn about in this second issue of MOA Magazine. MOA is both local and global and is committed to connecting you to the world and the world to the artistic and cultural legacy of our province. You can see what this really means by reading the letter we have printed from Steffani, one of our younger visitors, on page 16. Anthony Alan Shelton Director
For more about the significance of the Audain Art Museum for British Columbia read Dr. Shelton's recent blog post: http://j.mp/bcs1605.
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happenings
MOA News exhibition
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun ca mpaign
#RenameBC acquisition
Violin Case calendar
Events at MOA reflection
Letter from a Young Student e s s ay
The Sepik River: An Uncertain Future article
Great East Japan Earthquake: 5 Years Later v o l un t e e r a s s o c i at e s
40th Anniversary donors
2015–2016
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Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, I'm Having a Bad Colonial Day (detail), 2001. Courtesy of the Buschlen Mowatt Nichol Foundation. Photo: Ken Mayer.
MOA NEWS
j MOA's Heidi Swierenga (second from left) and Collections Assistant Cait Pilon (third from left) join UBC Civil Engineering staff on the "shake table". Photo: Ryan Xie.
j Dr. Anthony Shelton (centre) is presented with an award from the CMA. Photo: Tim Collin.
Preparing Museums For The Big One
MOA Wins Cultural Heritage Award
When disaster strikes, whether it be a fire, flood or earthquake, museum collections are at risk of significant damage. Museums can minimize this risk, however, by being prepared for those inevitable emergencies.
MOA Director Anthony Shelton was honoured to be presented with the prestigious Canadian Museums Association (CMA) Award of Outstanding Achievement in Research (Cultural Heritage) at a ceremony in Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 17, 2016.
MOA's Senior Conservator, Heidi Swierenga, along with partners from the Royal BC Museum and Burnaby Village Museum, was recently awarded a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage to work on several initiatives around heritage disaster response for museums in Western Canada, including the development of a west coast salvage network and a workshop on salvage and disaster preparedness. The project draws on research MOA is currently undertaking with the UBC Faculty of Structural and Earthquake Engineering. Using a "shake table" to replicate earthquakes of various magnitudes, they are working to develop affordable and easy-to-implement solutions to protect museum collections in the case of a major earthquake.
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The award celebrates the work done by Dr. Shelton and his colleagues at MOA on Heaven, Hell and Somewhere in Between: Portuguese Popular Art, a multi-platform collaborative research project undertaken between 2010 and 2015 that culminated in an exhibition at the museum last summer. "The focus on folk artists, an often marginalized category in cultural analysis," writes the CMA, "is brilliantly presented as a pathway towards understanding the religious, social and political landscape of Portugal."
j Musical clapper from Shandong, China. Photo: Kjerstin Mackie.
j Visitors at the Unceded Territories opening party. Photo: Ricardo Seah.
A Chinese Bamboo Rap-quisition
2000 Attend Unceded Territories Opening
One of our most exciting Asian acquisitions this year is a set of musical clappers from Shandong, China. Made from wood and metal, these clappers were used for a fast-paced storytelling genre called kuai shu. Literally translated as fast books, these performances are also known as Chinese bamboo rap! Originating from the villages of Shandong province, performers use the clappers to keep a fast beat while telling a comedic story or rhyme. They use tongue twisters, clowning gestures, puns and slang in a performance that is rambunctious, riotous and often subversive in content.
On the evening of May 10, two thousand people came together at MOA for the opening of our newest exhibition, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories. The overwhelming turnout for the event represents the largest exhibition opening in the history of the museum.
This particular set of clappers is special because it belonged to the National Shandong Kuai Shu Master Troupe during the 1980s. A legendary clapper named Sun Zhenye (1944–2010) performed with this troupe and likely used these very clappers. They are inscribed with the troupe’s name and the individual names of the performers. The scratches and wear on them speak to the long journeys these objects have taken, from Shandong to British Columbia.
After a rousing dance performance by Coastal Wolf Pack and a moving speech by Yuxweluptun himself, people flocked to the Audain Gallery to experience this collection of works that confront the colonialist suppression of First Nations peoples and the ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights to lands, resources and sovereignty. Unceded Territories is on view at MOA until October 16, 2016. You can learn more about Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun and the exhibition on page 6.
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UNCEDED TERRITORIES Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Paints Politics at MOA Karen Duffek MOA Curator Pacific Northwest Tania Willard Artist & Independent Curator Secwepemc Nation
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Unceded Territories is a major and timely review of the work of Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, spanning thirty years of his painterly and polemical practice. It places the artist’s concerns in dialogue with this moment in our shared histories. An artist of Cowichan (Hul’q’umi’num Coast Salish) and Okanagan (Syilx) descent, Yuxweluptun lives and works on unceded Coast Salish territories in Vancouver, British Columbia. He calls himself a history painter, a monumentalist, a modernist. Impassioned in his commitment to advancing First Nations rights to the land and effecting change, Yuxweluptun fuses art with political
g Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Killer Whale Has a Vision and Comes to Talk to Me About Proximological Encroachments of Civilizations in the Oceans, 2010. Private collection. Photo: William Eakin, courtesy of Plug In Editions.
action. In this he does not waver. He works in multiple genres to expand the potential and the reach of his art beyond and between the signifiers and traditions of Native and nonNative forms of visual culture. His rule breaking and his transformation of the Western and Northwest Coast art genres are acts of artistic and Indigenous liberty. His work simultaneously points to the historical and the now, and offers a way to visualize Indigenous futures for the land and generations to come. Replacing the theme of empty wilderness with landscape as contested territory, Yuxweluptun records on canvas what he feels are the real issues facing First Nations people today: land rights, environmental destruction, systemic racism and globalized control of resources as products of the continuing force of colonization. He extends his concerns with geographical and cultural sovereignty into depictions of the Coast Salish spirit world and into abstracted compositions that reposition the “elements” and “rules” of traditional Northwest Coast Aboriginal painting. Yuxweluptun’s targeted, at times inflammatory, often humorous, and always inspired “visionism” is brought together in this solo exhibition, at a museum he has often called the “Indian morgue.” It is his term for the Museum of Anthropology, based on its containment of ethnographic objects: cultural belongings that have become artifacts largely separated from life, land, family, and ceremonial practice. Indeed, ethnological museums have historically played a major role in constituting that separation, not only through their collecting activities (that contributed to the ensuing entanglement of Indigenous cultural currency and art market values), but
also by re-contextualizing culturally displaced objects within bounded ethnographic (and, later, universalist fine-art) categories and discourses. First Nations in British Columbia have been at the forefront of broader intellectual critiques and social transformations in demanding that the relationship between museums and the living peoples they purport to serve be realigned. Over the same thirty years that Yuxweluptun has been painting, MOA has made significant efforts to respond to its own changing landscape. It has worked to strengthen its relationships with diverse cultural communities and, as a result of this process, is placing renewed emphasis on culturally distinct knowledge systems, in order to address this dispossession in reflexive, interrogative, and mutually beneficial ways. Unceded Territories offers a new space in which to expand, and challenge, such articulations. This exhibition marks two decades since Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s first major solo show, Born to Live and Die on Your Colonialist Reservations, was held in Vancouver in 1995 to inaugurate the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia. At that point Yuxweluptun had been painting for about ten years. His work had already come to public attention through two group exhibitions coinciding with—and confronting the implications of—the five-hundred-year anniversary of the so-called discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Indigena: Contemporary Native Perspectives (Canadian Museum of Civilization) and Land, Spirit, Power: First Nations at the National Gallery of Canada (National Gallery of Canada) both opened in 1992 and helped push onto a national platform 7
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Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun in his Vancouver studio, September 2015. Photo: Ken Mayer. bottom
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Fish Farmers They Have Sea Lice, 2014. Private collection. Photo: Ken Mayer.
the idea of the land as a spiritual and political legacy within and beyond five hundred years of colonization. Each exhibition also marked a belated focus on contemporary Aboriginal voices—whether in a museum or art gallery, or, more crucially, outside such institutions altogether. Since then, Yuxweluptun has not only been part of other important exhibitions across Canada and internationally (including the National Gallery of Canada’s first international survey of Indigenous art, Sakahàn, in 2013), but his art and voice have been central to the changing discourses generated by and around contemporary art, both Indigenous and nonIndigenous. Moreover, the climate in which his art is now received has changed—literally. Audiences in British Columbia are approaching his work with a stronger personal connection to the issues he paints than they likely did two decades ago. Environmental concerns have become very real for most of us. Public debates around oil pipelines, liquefied natural gas, and fracking are no longer somewhere else: they are in our backyard. Landmark court decisions on Indigenous land rights have made “unceded territories” more than an abstract idea.
Yuxweluptun’s practice fuels conversation, questioning, indignation, and even spiritual awareness as it carries us as viewers through— and implicates us in—a trajectory of land claims and counter claims, shifting aesthetics and Western classifications of Northwest Coast Native art, outlawed and reinvigorated cultural practices and protocols, and several decades of debates about the roles and domains of art institutions and other public spaces. In Unceded Territories, viewers and the exhibition’s curators alike are brought into confrontation with our own reflections. And this artist does not worry about making us uncomfortable. What we see in Yuxweluptun’ “sovereign rainbows”—his evocation of the inseparability of Aboriginal rights from “land, spirit, and power”—will reflect our subject positions, Indigenous and nonIndigenous. But just as a rainbow refracts light, so do the artist’s paintings have the potential, and the intention, to alter what we see from where we stand on his home and Native land. •
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories is on view in MOA's Audain Gallery until Oct. 16, 2016. This excerpt was first published in the exhibition catalogue (Figure 1 Publishing), available in our shop.
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#RENAMEBC What would you name our province? Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, an artist of Coast Salish and Okanagan descent, believes we should rename British Columbia. Visit renamebc.ca and share your idea for a new name with us. It will be displayed on a wall at MOA outside the exhibition Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories. We'll invite the public to vote on their favourite name for BC in September. The winner will receive a gift pack including a signed poster, an Unceded Territories book and t-shirt.
renamebc.ca
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WOVEN CASE, WOVEN HISTORIES Ines Min "I remember them sitting on their porch in rocking chairs." "They were very pleasant people.” “I delivered The Province to them every Saturday. That was my first paper route.” Ralph Wyborn and his siblings still dearly remember Jimmy Charles, a chief of the Semiahmoo people, and his wife, Matilda. The couple were active members of their small Coast Salish community in the first half of the 20th century. “We lived on the reserve,” says Ralph, explaining how his non-Native family came to know the couple. At 87, he can still describe the geographical and historical features of White Rock and the surrounding region in great detail, moving mentally from the then-newly instated Pacific Highway northward up to Patullo Bridge and into New Westminster. The Great Depression hit the Wyborns hard, and the family moved to the Semiahmoo Reserve in the 1930s in search of work. The reserve is sandwiched between White Rock and the Canada / United States border. Henry and Clara Wyborn leased a plot of 10 acres and bought a building that would become Alder Lodge. Jimmy helped in the initial establishment, moving the building closer to the road with Henry and another friend. The road was the single
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point of entry into White Rock on the Pacific Stage bus line, which meant business held steady and catered mostly to travellers passing through. “I was so young and [my brother] Bob was just knee-high to a grasshopper,” Ralph says. His sister Marguerite was the youngest. The community was small and closely knit, with friends bartering their skills. At one point, Matilda taught Clara how to use stinging nettles and dandelion leaves in natural remedies—an important sharing of knowledge as there was only a single pharmacy in the area. Alder Lodge also offered free accommodations to teachers at the nearby school, in exchange for tuition costs for the Wyborn children. Drives into larger New Westminster were frequent, and a seven-year-old Ralph began accompanying his father into town every Saturday for music lessons. His violin had belonged to his uncle and was a replica Stradivarius. To transport it back and forth, the Wyborns asked Jimmy and Matilda to make a case for the violin. In exchange, they would pay $6—worth over $100 in today’s dollars—and provide groceries free of charge from the lodge. The couple came through and in December 1936, Ralph received his violin case. It was handmade of cedar slats and root with cherry bark and grass designs. The lid was fastened on with brass butterfly hinges and the
handle incorporates rawhide skin. Although he can’t be sure, Ralph believes it’s possible his father collaborated with Jimmy on making the handle—he even suspects the leather might have been from one of his father’s boots. “Dad would always fix things for us,” he says. “Any toys that we had, Dad made them for us.” Eventually, a more direct road into the town was built and the bridge leading to the lodge fell into disrepair. The family closed the business and moved off the reserve in 1940, losing contact with Jimmy and Matilda in the process. Henry had been handy all his life, having worked as a pipefitter at an oil refinery, lodge proprietor, beehive burner at the Campbell River Sawmill, and more. Ralph similarly explored his interests and began working as well. The violin lessons didn’t stick to the young and energetic man, but he held onto the instrument and its case for the next 80 years. Jimmy remained chief until his death in 1952, and Matilda lived until 1963. Born in 1872 on the Semiahmoo Reserve, Jimmy also worked as a boom man in the lumbering industry. Matilda (née Warbus) was born in 1871 at Lummi Island, Washington State, and was a skilled basket maker. Now the violin case is getting a new life. In August 2015, Ralph decided to donate the unique piece to the Museum of Anthropology, wanting to ensure its continued care. “I talked it over with the family, my daughter and my granddaughter,” he says. “We felt that it should go someplace to be looked after. We’ve looked after it all these years.”
j Ralph Wyborn and his sister Marguerite. Photo: Karen Duffek.
It was a difficult choice to make, to say goodbye to such an important piece of his family’s history. “I struggled with this for quite a long while, to part with it. You know, because of those 80 years,” Ralph says. “But I did it to honor the memory of our parents, and Jimmy and Matilda Charles.” His sister Marguerite agrees with the sentiment. “It’s so that there’s something tangible in memory,” she says. “It’s priceless to Ralph and the family.” The violin case (3126/1) and the original violin (3126/2) can be found in MOA’s online collections (moa.ubc.ca/cat). Indeed, it isn't often that artifacts come to MOA with such well documented histories, and with the names of the makers recorded. •
Ines Min is a freelance writer and an MA student in the Critical and Curatorial Studies program at UBC.
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EXHIBITIONS ON NOW In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man: Contemporary Art of the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea On view until January 31, 2017 This beautiful yet challenging exhibition features contemporary sculptural works created by master carvers who live in villages along the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea. The works are distinguished by their finely carved and painted imagery inspired by ritual events, such as initiation ceremonies; mythical beings that visit the village at night; stories about ancestors; and sometimes everyday life in the village. Videos and photographs highlight the magnificent Sepik River, the source of life, whilst the voices of the artists speak of the threats to this environment posed by impending mining activity in the area.
j Thomas Kain, Skeleton Mask, 2008. 3091/6, Estate of Neil Cole: Collection of Papua New Guinea Carvings. Photo: Kyla Bailey.
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories On view until October 16, 2016 Vancouver artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, of Coast Salish and Okanagan descent, is showcased in this provocative exhibition of works that confront the colonialist suppression of First Nations peoples and the ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights to lands, resources and sovereignty. Twenty years since his last major Canadian solo show, Unceded Territories demonstrates the progression of Yuxweluptun’s artistry and ideas through hard-hitting, polemical, but also playful artworks that span his remarkable 30-year career, and including some new works exhibited publicly for the first time. 14
j Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Just Practice, 2014. Collection of the artist. Photo: Ken Mayer.
CALENDAR
Remove the centerfold and pop it on your fridge or bulletin board.
JUNE Tuesday, June 7 | 7 pm Artist Talk: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, an artist of Coast Salish and Okanagan descent, is known for his bold and political approach to Northwest Coast Native art. Join us as he speaks about the Unceded Territories exhibition, his artistic practice, and his quest for education and change. Yuxweluptun will also announce the first winner of the #RenameBC project that aims to revoke the colonial stamp of “British Columbia.” Tuesday, June 14 | 7 pm Not Your Average Tour! In response to the exhibition Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories, MOA is taking a new approach to the standard exhibition tour. We have invited First Nations academics, activists, politicians and community members to use Yuxweluptun’s work as a springboard for discussion. Let these unconventional guides direct your attention to critical issues confronting Indigenous communities locally, nationally and internationally. Dory Nason (UBC First Nations and Indigenous Studies) Andrea Walsh (UVic Visual Anthropologist, uses art as an approach to contemporary Aboriginal issues) Tuesday, June 21 | 6 pm Not Your Average Tour! Daniel Justice (Chair, UBC First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program)
j Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun in his studio. Photo: Graeme Berglund.
JULY Tuesday, July 5 | 7 pm First Tuesday Tour Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories exhibition tour led by MOA curator Karen Duffek.
AUGUST Tuesday, August 2 | 7 pm First Tuesday Tour In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man: Contemporary Art of the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea exhibition tour led by curator Carol E. Mayer. For additional information on MOA programs and events, visit moa.ubc.ca/programs. 15
WHEN I HEARD THAT, I WAS SO SHOCKED A Young Student Reflects on her Field Trip to MOA Pilar Wong Navabi Education & Public Programs Coordinator This adorably illustrated letter was sent to us by Steffani, a grade 4 student at Sir Sandford Fleming Elementary School in Vancouver. Steffani and her classmates had just visited MOA on a field trip and each of them wrote us to share their thoughts about one of our most popular school programs, Cedar: The Tree of Life. The program highlights the continuing importance of the cedar tree among First Peoples of the Northwest Coast. Rain or shine, students start the program outside at a cedar tree, which gets them thinking about the amazing transformation needed to turn a tree into objects and belongings that are both useful and beautiful. As with everything that we do at MOA, we first acknowledge that we’re on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. Students are shown an ancestral figure carved from cedar by Susan Point, a contemporary Musqueam artist. We use this artistic piece to acknowledge Musqueam’s long history here—one that spans over 9,000 years.
A recurring theme throughout the program is history and change. This can be seen when students learn about the traditional and contemporary ways in which trees are felled, planks are removed and bark is stripped. Close-looking is an important process included in our educational programs. This process encourages students to use and develop their observational skills and provides a space for inspiration, inquiry and appreciation. Seeing and learning from belongings helps us better understand the needs, skills and cultures of the people who made them. The most exciting part of any museum program, for both students and teachers, is when you actually get to touch something! MOA has a wonderful teaching collection that allows us to teach using objects and belongings similar to those that can be seen behind glass. Students have the opportunity to handle and learn from cedar objects including a bait box, an elbow adze, a basket, a bentwood box and a woven hat. The teaching collection also helps to bring the program and students to the present. Students are introduced to contemporary First Nations artists to focus on the idea that these traditions are continuing and remain culturally important today. It’s always wonderful to hear from students and teachers who have visited MOA. We'd like to thank Steffani, as well as Sandra and Wenshu, two of the many wonderful volunteers who lead our educational programs. • 17
THE SEPIK RIVER: AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE Mining and Logging Threaten Artists' Communities Carol E. Mayer MOA Curator, Africa/Pacific The future would seem to hold much promise for the artists along the Sepik River. The power of the river as a life source and its dynamic yet fragile relationship with the environment permeates the sculptural art, which abounds with naturalistic imagery about transformation and creation. This art form remains vibrant and integral to the ceremonial and economic life of the many villages along the river. Artists keep on creating new works and one village, Kaminibit, has its own art centre where tourists can purchase a wide range of works brought in from surrounding villages.
The sculptures are starting to enter the international world of fine art. Individual artists are actively seeking to expand their repertoire, creating new works that reflect their unique reinterpretations of the world within and beyond the village: a killer whale seen in Canada and carved by Teddy Balangu, or a man seen in the Highlands carved by self-professed traveller Joseph Kandimbu. Others are giving form to creatures that only existed in stories passed down through families for as long as anybody can remember: the bukduma, who systematically builds and destroys the river banks, and the cassowary woman, who can shed her skin when she goes for a swim. Yet the artists now speak of an uncertain future: Today I see life is changing; it is not the normal life that I grew up with. And I see that my children will be facing danger. ( edwa rd dumoi , pa l embei v il l age )
j Peter Minja, Bukduma, 2006. 2716/9 a-c, MOA purchase. Photo: Ken Mayer.
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Across the river from Palembei, the evidence of logging is apparent. Stretches of wasteland evidence the presence of a Malaysian company, Rimbunan Hijau, which has been logging in Papua New Guinea for many years. They are not welcome and were not invited: “We’ll never open the door for them,” community members
say. There is little interaction between the loggers and the villagers, and stories circulate about suspicious sales of forestry rights and lack of proper compensation for the landowners: This is because they are cheating the people and stealing the timber and exporting it to Malaysia and making large amounts of money. I would like the provincial and national governments to do something and stop the logging company along the Sepik River. ( a rnol d a mbu , k a minibi t v il l age ) Because of a lack of reliable information, much of the conversation in the villages is based on rumour. The situation is more complex than we could grasp during our research trip for our exhibition, In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man: Contemporary Art of the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea, but it became clear that there was no community support for the logging: Logging, it’s not something that we want. We have a huge jungle along the river and the wood is the centre of our lives, and now these people are harvesting the logs. It’s killing the village and the entire people along the river. One village can have as many as 300 canoes, and if the company cut all the logs how will they survive? We won’t be able to move. ( cl ay t us ya mbon , korogo v il l age ) Another major concern is the impending mining operation at the headlands of the Sepik River. Again, this is a complex situation and the information shared here is taken from correspondence with the mining company. The Frieda River Copper-Gold Project is located on the border of the Sandaun and East Sepik provinces in the northwest of Papua New Guinea, and sits within the Sepik River Basin. PanAust, an Australian copper and gold mining company, holds 80 percent interest in the Frieda River Project, with its joint venture partner, Highlands Pacific, holding the remaining 20 percent. The Project is in feasibility study phase with an application for a Special Mining Lease on track to be considered by the Papua New Guinea government during 2016.
Mining on a global scale does not have a commendable record. Here in Canada, Indigenous people have been at the receiving end of disrespectful destruction of the environment for many years: the recent disaster of the collapsing tailing ponds at the Mount Polley Mine in British Columbia, the leaking pipelines across Canada, the polluting oil sands of Alberta and so on. People along the Sepik have not experienced any of this yet, but they are aware of the legacy of mining practices in other areas of Papua New Guinea: threatened cultural practices, decimated landscapes and abandoned villages.1 The most infamous of these is the Ok Tedi Mine on the Fly River in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.2 The villagers know they cannot stop the mine and are seeking ways to work with the mining company to ensure their Indigenous rights are respected. Sustainability is in the DNA of PanAust. Over the course of the Company’s growth from being a junior explorer in the early 2000s, to a project developer and now, as a mid-tier international copper and gold company, PanAust has become synonymous with leading-practice environmental management, host-community development, health and safety, and employee engagement wherever it operates. ( pa n aus t corresp ondence w i t h m ay er , nov ember 17, 2015 ) PanAust’s intention is to set the benchmark for socially and environmentally responsible mining in PNG. The correspondence continues, We recognize and respect the importance of the Sepik River and the surrounding natural environment to PNG from both an environmental perspective and the contribution they make to people’s lives and livelihoods. In the words of Sepik communities, “river is life.” The Sepik River is the life of the people. It is their highway between villages and, along with the gardens, their major food source. They view themselves as “small people” with no voice. There is no media available on the river (no television, no newspapers, 19
no radio), so there is limited contact with the outside world. Many do not know that their concerns are global in nature—what they fear is felt throughout the world. I believe the mine will spoil our water system in the not-so-distant future. All the animals living in the river and those that depend on this river system will be greatly affected. The mine will only bring bad things to the river. It will be beneficial only for the landowners of the area where the mine is operating. I fear toxic wastes from the mine being dumped into the river system. The future of our children twenty or thirty years from now will be destroyed. ( cl ay t us ya mbon , korogo v il l age ) PanAust announced on March 30, 2015 that it had received a letter from Guangdong Rising Assets Management (GRAM) announcing its intention to make an unconditional, off-market takeover offer to acquire all of the shares of PanAust: We were taken over by a major Chinese asset management company, GRAM, in June this year. GRAM had held a 20 percent stake in PanAust for several years and in fact their member of the Board headed up our successful Sustainability Committee under whose stewardship we won a number of international awards for sustainability. GRAM are managers rather than operators so PanAust’s very high standards remain in place. As for the Sepik River, we understand the trepidation. That’s why we are regularly engaging communities to discuss concerns and mitigate potential risks. ( pa n aus t corresp ondence w i t h m ay er , december 7, 2015 ) Delegations from PanAust have travelled down the river to talk to the villagers. From the conversations in the village it was clear there is much work to be done if the good intentions as expressed by PanAust are to be realized. 3 Suspicion, fear and rejection of even the possibility of change kept many away from the sessions, including the artists: 20
j Alois Sukundimi Baup Takue (Rape of the Moon), 2008. 3091/2, Estate of Neil Cole: Collection of Papua New Guinea Carvings. Photo: Kyla Bailey.
I don’t know what they are planning to do. I do not want to talk to them. I do not want to walk with them. ( k aua gi ta , korogo v il l age ) Far away from the Sepik, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have joined with partners from around the world, collectively known as the Global Rivers Observatory, to investigate river chemistry in Earth’s most significant river systems. They are active on the Yukon Mackenzie, Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Kolyma, Ganges, Congo, Amazon, Mississippi, Columbia and Fraser rivers. Their work on the Fraser River prompted my proposal that they include the Sepik in their research. They responded with enthusiasm, and together we located Lukas Kou, actor and environmental activist of Wewak, who
agreed to learn the sampling process and make the Sepik River part of the Global Rivers Observatory. This is a small but hopefully significant step towards greater transparency.4 In the context of the Frieda Mine project our collaborative research on the Sepik will be particularly valuable, as we can trace dissolved trace metals from mine operations, and changes in major ion composition of the river related to mine operation. ( f rom w hoi corresp ondence w i t h m ay er , ja nua ry 25, 2016 ) Discussions about the future of logging and mining in Papua New Guinea are ongoing. The balance between political, economic and cultural interests is tricky; 5 the opinions presented here are intended to illustrate the complexity of the situation and the concerns of the villagers. Most of the artists believe they need to carry on making the art and stay in the village: I don’t want to leave my village, I don’t want to leave my fishing ground, I don’t want to leave my good house. I don’t want to leave my people and go to other place. I want to stay in my village where I can make whatever I want, get money and live in my own house. This is the land of my forefathers who said, “You can stay in this land. This is your place, this is your proper place, and you are in the right time.” I cannot leave my village, I cannot leave my culture. I cannot leave my tradition. I don’t want to leave. ( t eddy b a l a ngu , pa l embei v il l age ) The master carvers know their art is an important source of income and they continue to make what they know they can sell—as long as the buyers come. Master carvers continue to make unique art that is technically superb. There is no sign of distress or negative comment in the imagery;
it remains inspired by mythology and legends passed down through families, or depictions of everyday life and experiences. The carvers have not yet experienced any disaster that has changed their lives. Even the ever-present logging has not yet reduced the number of canoes. What will the future hold for the art, for the river and for the people? As Andrew Moutu reflects, “If contemporary art can allow us to walk ‘in the footprint of the crocodile man’, it is timely to note that footprints are facts that have already happened. It is a fact that emerges only in retrospect, but it is asking questions about where we might want to go.” •
Notes
1
Websites with information pertaining to mining practices include ramumine.wordpress.com and highlandspacific.com.
2
The Ok Tedi Mine was discharging 80 million tons of contaminated material into the river system each year.
3
Many thanks to Glen Connell, General Manager and Community Relations (PNG) PanAust, for agreeing to correspond about his company’s commitment to environmental stability. See www.panaust.com.au.
4
Many thanks to Dr. Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, Senior Scientist, Department of Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, for his patience and persistence, which have made this collaboration possible. See www.globalrivers.org.
5
The focus of the PNG government was made clear in a speech by Hon. Peter O’Neill CMG MP, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, at the Papua New Guinea-Australia Business Forum (Lae, May 18, 2015): “Stability is key for this government in the management of our economy. We are providing both the political stability and the policy stability that ensures Papua New Guinea remains an attractive location for business and investment.” See http://j.mp/pngpm0515.
In the Footprint of the Crocodile Man: Contemporary Art of the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea is on view until January 31, 2017. This essay can be found in the accompanying book, available in the MOA Shop.
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A FUTURE FOR MEMORY THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS Reflections on the Aftermath of the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Fuyubi Nakamura MOA Curator, Asia
What would we look for if our hometown was swept away? The tsunamis triggered by the massive earthquakes that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, ruthlessly swallowed up several towns along the coastline, taking away the lives of numerous people. In the aftermath of the disaster, various kinds of local residents’ possessions were rescued from the debris. These recovered items—often called omoide no shina or "objects of memory"—were cleaned by volunteers and later displayed with the hope of reconnecting them with their owners, or their family or friends. To mark the fifth anniversary of the disaster, I decided to reflect on the relief activities that I was involved with in Utatsu in Minamisanriku, Miyagi, from May to August 2011. Minamisanriku was one of the towns swept away by the tsunami. Since the disaster, I have been mulling over immaterial and material heritage politics, ways of handling the post-traumatic and the national tragedy as well as creation of random or involuntary archives. In particular, the importance of everyday objects and roles of museums in the aftermath of disasters became so acutely relevant to me.
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When the news of the disaster in Japan reached me I was on the other side of the globe in Argentina. I was later interviewed by the local media about the aftermath of the disaster in relation to the role of art, as an exhibition I curated had just opened in Buenos Aires. I was asked what art could do, and whether artworks in the region had survived. All I could say at that moment was that, regardless of whether physical beings survived or not, their memories would survive. We could probably find a future in the past. I was recalling the idea behind the exhibition of works by Masao Okabe, curated by Chihiro Minato for the Japanese pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale, entitled Is there a future for our past?: The dark face of the light, as Minato was participating in the exhibition in Buenos Aires as an artist. Okabe’s frottage, made in Hiroshima’s Ujina district, which retained traces of the atomic bomb explosion, made up the show. The idea of seeing "a future in the past" has been with me since the disaster.
Debris and Mementos The debris included not only the wreckage of buildings and ships, but just about anything and everything we would normally have at home or work: tables, shoes, bags, credit cards, family albums and so on. All of these items—possessions belonging to someone— were battered and left exposed to the open air. In addition to these objects, bodies of the victims were still waiting to be recovered in the debris and under the water. Although these objects were part of what made up the debris, or gareki, many felt uncomfortable referring to them as such. At our volunteer center, we called these objects hyôchaku butsu, literally meaning “items washed ashore”. The curators at Rias Ark Museum in Miyagi suggest another term, hisai-butsu, literally meaning “victim object”, following the Japanese word for a victim, hisai-sha. For some survivors such sentiments seemed unnecessary—for them, gareki was what these objects were. They did not wish to
j Photographs laying out to dry, Tokyo, June 2011. Photo: Fuyubi Nakamura.
recover their personal belongings, which had now become something else in their eyes. They did not want to cling on to the past. For most of the survivors, however, reclaiming pieces of their past in a material form gave them strength as proof of their life and the hometown they had lost. But was it these material forms called omoide that the survivors sought? As in any post-disaster zone, judging what might be worth rescuing is a difficult task. People can be attached to particular objects that may seem inconsequential to others. Because it was easy to 23
of the image would disappear. As long as there was a recognizable figure, we decided to rescue and clean the photo. It could be the only extant photographic image of someone. The cleaning process is not complicated but is time consuming, requiring care and concentration. Surviving images on photographic prints can easily come off in the cleaning process, especially when the surface of the print is already very fragile.
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Volunteers cleaning rescued photographs, Utatsu, June 2011. Photo: Naoya Yoshida. bottom
Recovered belongings displayed with the hope of reconnecting them with their owners, or their family or friends, Utatsu, August 2011. Photo: Fuyubi Nakamura.
recognize their value, photographs were the most frequently rescued objects. They were covered in seawater, mud and sludge full of bacteria or particles of asbestos, and required immediate attention and care, otherwise bacteria would eat up the gelatin in the prints and whatever was left
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Without knowing whether the people in these rescued photos were still alive, we started to feel a certain connection to them through their images. The privacy of photographs was an issue, but without showing these pictures there was no way to find their owners. In Japan it is common to display a photographic portrait of a deceased person, called iei, at a funeral or at a family altar. Many people were looking for a photograph of their lost family members, especially when the bodies of their loved ones were still not found. A middle-aged woman brought the only photograph of her husband, who was killed in the disaster, and told us she found it among the rubble and wanted us to clean it so that she could use it as an iei. She felt that her husband’s resilience and strength was transformed in his photographic image and that is why it survived. The Japanese word for photography, shashin, literally means "copying truth/reality".
A Future for Memory Any post-disaster scenes look dramatic, and striking and sensational images are often published. The photographer Shinichi Sato from Minamisanriku grabbed his camera and kept photographing as he witnessed his hometown being battered by the tsunami. Sato says it is his duty as a local photographer to keep recording how his hometown would recover from the disaster: "I hope that the photos that I take now will send a message to the future. I believe in the power of photography."
k left
Utatsu Isatomae in Minamisanriku, July 2011. Photo: Fuyubi Nakamura. right
A breath of new life in Utatsu, July 2011. Photo: Fuyubi Nakamura.
What do photographs tell us? As objects, surviving photographs trigger memories, emotions and imaginations. Even though fragmented, the images in rescued photographs survived the disaster, just like these feelings and thoughts. These photographs embody strength in the eyes of the survivors. Images in photographic prints survived because they are material objects, whereas digital images— stored on hard drives, CDs or memory sticks— were damaged in the water. Because of their materiality, photographic prints became not only objects and traces of memory but also serve as relics. Five years on since the tragic disaster, not all the images in the uncleaned photographs have faded, as many imagined they would a year after the disaster. These photographs are not just objects of memory but remind us not to forget the disaster and the continuous efforts of many survivors to recover and rebuild their lives. These rescued, survived photographs tell us there is a future for our memory. •
Note: This article is an abridged and revised version of Dr. Nakamura's published paper, “The Memory in the Debris” in Anthropology Today, June 2012, Vol. 28, No. 3 (onlinelibrary. wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anth.2012.28.issue-3/issuetoc).
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40 YEARS OF VOLUNTEERS When we opened the doors to our current building in 1976, a handful of dedicated women formed what we now know as the Volunteer Associates, or VAs. Volunteerism is at the foundation of the museum. Audrey Hawthorn, MOA’s first curator and wife of our first director Harry Hawthorn, was herself a volunteer for twenty years or more. She introduced Canada’s first course in museum studies, which all MOA volunteers had to take as part of their training. Soon after, a group of eleven women enrolled in a UBC course, What’s a Museum?, coordinated by Reva Malkin and taught by curator Dr. Marjorie Halpin. Unbeknownst to the students, the course was used to recruit people who would become volunteers at MOA. Another curator, Dr. Elvi Whittaker, had already determined that volunteers would be considered associates, rather than docents, putting them on an equal basis with staff. Comprehensive training would be required to become a full-status volunteer. In return for volunteer help, the staff would offer academic education and practical training, together with recognition and respect. That core group of volunteers has since grown to 100. They work in all areas of the museum including education, archaeology, research, collections and conservation, library and archives, and special events.
In the foreword to a publication marking the VAs 25th anniversary, Michael Ames, MOA Director from 1976–1997 and 2002–2004, wrote: “When asked what criteria might be used to measure MOA’s success, I would say one should first count the number of years VAs maintain their association with MOA. Good people will volunteer their services only when they judge the place to be worth their effort." This year we are celebrating 40 years of the VA organization. We're extremely grateful for the commitment, dedication and passion the volunteers bring to MOA every single day. • k bottom
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MOA volunteers in the Great Hall, September 2014. Photo: Celeste Moure.
MOA volunteer founders, Spring 1990. Photo: Bill McLennan.
DONATIONS MOA would like to acknowledge those who gave so generously in 2015–2016 to the museum, its exhibitions, publications, acquisitions and public programs. Thank you for your support!
GENERAL DONATION FUND Anonymous Michael J. Audain C J. Banfield Paul Bennett Arthur J. Bond Marylin Clark Dorothy J. Davies Enrico O. Dobrzensky Donald E. Forsyth Adelia Gaba John Geddes Chit Chun Gunn Evelyn J. Harden Ian E. Housego Patricia Hudson Sandra Ingham Robert M. Kellogg Stephen G. Kennedy John Kilmarx John Kuiper Lucila Lee Verna K. Lynas Reva Malkin Elizabeth M. Montgomery Molly K. Moriarty Cornelia H. Oberlander Kelly J. Rae Joanne Rothwell Celeste W. Shannte Yuko Shibata Beverley L. Tamboline Christine B. Wisenthal Kathryn Woodward Vancouver Foundation Yosef Wosk
EXHIBITION & PUBLICATION FUND Maryon G. Adelaar Nicola Flossbach Kathleen Metcalfe Michael O’Brian Dawn and Keith Peck ACQUISITION FUND Anonymous Craig Anderson Reid Anderson Dana Anderson-Breau Judith F. Eyrl Michael O'Brian Family Foundation Anne B. Piternick Victoria Foundation TEXTILES FUND Freda Ruth Wilson AUDREY & HARRY HAWTHORN LIBRARY ENDOWMENT Steven P. Weisman AUDREY HAWTHORN ENDOWMENT FUND FOR PUBLICATIONS Doris A. Livingstone
HILARY STEWART ENDOWMENT FOR FIRST NATIONS PROGRAMS Estate of Hilary M. Stewart Selig Kaplan Beryl A. Woodrow MICHAEL M. AMES THEATRE FUND Susan Rowley Anthony Shelton MOA REFLECTING POND Yosef Wosk NATIVE YOUTH PROGRAM Anonymous ACCESS TD Bank Group MEDIA SPONSOR The Georgia Straight World Journal OTHER SUPPORT The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation BC Arts Council Canada Council Canadian Heritage Youth Canada Works Canadian Heritage Museum Assistance Program Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan)
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HOURS Daily Tuesday
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ADMISSION RATES Adults $18 Students & Seniors $16 Family $47 Tuesdays 5–9 pm $10 MOA Members Free Children Under 7 Free UBC Students & Staff Free See moa.ubc.ca/visit for more information.
GETTING HERE MOA is on the University of British Columbia campus, at 6393 NW Marine Drive. Parking ($3.50 / hour) is available in front of the museum and across the street at the Rose Garden Parkade. For bus routes to UBC, visit translink.ca. From UBC bus loop, catch either the C18 or C20 shuttle to MOA or walk north 10 minutes to NW Marine Drive. Bike racks are available at the museum's entrance.
CONNECT WITH MOA
MOA programs are supported by visitors, Volunteer Associates, members and donors; Canada Foundation for Innovation; Canada Council for the Arts; Department of Canadian Heritage Museums Assistance Programs, Young Canada Works, and Canada 150; BC Arts Council; Aboriginal Career Community Employment Services Society; The Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts; The Doggone Foundation; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Michael O'Brian Family Foundation; TD Bank Group; Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan); and the Consulate General of France in Vancouver. Printer: Glenmore Printing, Richmond, BC Design: Chelsey Doyle
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