INSIGHT
W INT E R 2 0 2 2
WHAT’S
CARVING AND CATCHING UP
SPORE-ADIC CREATIVITY
EXPERTS IN THE FIELD
In Conversation with Richard Hunt
Showcasing BC’s Marvellous Mushrooms
A Return to Field Work
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
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Spore-adic Creativity
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The Royal BC Museum is located on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen (Songhees and Xwsepsum Nations). We extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live and learn on this territory.
C O N T R I B U TO RS
Dr. Victoria Arbour, Lauren Buttle, Dr. Kathryn Bridge, Dr. Henry Choong, Claudia Copley, Liz Crocker, Dr. Joel Gibson, Rodney Hazard, Sandra Hudson, Richard Hunt, Kate Kerr, Wesley MacInnis, Hugh MacIntosh, Dr. Ken Marr, Dr. Daniel Muzyka, Chris O’Connor, Beverly Paty. ii
F E AT U R E
Carving and Catching Up in Thunderbird Park
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A Message from the Acting CEO A History of Modernization F E AT U R E
Spore-adic Creativity Photo Shards Meet the Museum F E AT U R E
Experts in the Field Not Just Black and White F E AT U R E
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Carving and Catching Up in Thunderbird Park
WHAT’S INSIGHT
Tracey Drake E D I TO R - I N - C H I E F
Jennifer Vanderzee
F E AT U R E
Experts in the Field
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M A N AG I N G E D I TO R
Bhumika Kamra A S S O C I AT E E D I T O R
Irvin Cheung GRAPHIC DESIGNER
PUBLISHING
An Unvarnished Christmas
Annie Mayse C O PY E D I TO R
Whaleontology Rolling With the Plans
Eve Rickert PUBLISHER
Tackling the Backlog Hope Meets Action Meets Design
Shane Lighter P H OTO G R A P H E R
Deaccessioning Landscapes of Injustice
Melanie Grisak P H OTO G R A P H E R
What’s On Calendar
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A
M E S S AG E
Dear Supporters,
F R O M
T H E
AC T I N G
In my last message to you, I wrote about the commitment of all of us at the Royal BC Museum to do better and to be more accountable to all people in British Columbia, as well as to continue the modernization of our facilities and practices. We are on a journey that will improve our offering to you and future generations, and will build on the major investment being made by the provincial government into our facilities. We have now taken an important step forward in that process by closing the third-floor galleries to conserve the collection. This is the beginning of our journey to broaden the histories we share and to foster inclusivity, and it provides us the opportunity to modernize galleries and displays that have been in place for 50 years. With the closure, which came into effect on January 2, the museum now has the opportunity to be inclusive of all people in modern British Columbia and ensure we are sharing the true richness of our province. All of our histories are important, and it is imperative that we represent a true diversity of the stories of the past. The new galleries will continue to include European settler history, and will broaden to bring in the histories of all communities, shared in their own voices, that have contributed to building what we today call British Columbia. I have had many people reach out to me since the announcement regarding the third-floor closures, some to applaud the important steps that the museum is taking, others to share fond multi-generational family stories about visits to Old Town, the smells of HMS Discovery, and the sites and sounds of other galleries. It is our goal that when the new, improved and expanded galleries and exhibits open in the years to come, they will become even more treasured by families, whether they’re local or visiting. The next steps in the process of renewing our galleries will include a comprehensive process of community engagement and outreach with individuals and groups across the province. This is imperative to developing new, inclusive, engaging, modern and immersive experiences for everyone to enjoy. At the same time, museum staff are pleased and excited about the progress that is being made on the development of the new Collections and Research Building in Colwood. A competition for the design and construction of the building is well underway, and we will announce the successful firms in the summer of 2022. This is an exciting time for the museum and the province, as the people who live in British Columbia work together to ensure that we are home to a museum that conveys our full histories for current and future generations. Sincerely yours,
Dr. Daniel F. Muzyka Acting Chief Executive Officer, Royal BC Museum 2
C E O
WHAT’S INSIGHT
A HISTORY OF
MODERNIZATION
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A H I S T O RY O F M O D E R N I Z AT I O N
1908
The provincial archives were established as a separate institution, mandated to collect material of provincial significance.
1886
The provincial museum was established. It was housed in a single room adjoining the provincial secretary’s office in the capitol buildings, which were nicknamed “the Birdcages”. John Fannin, an avid outdoorsman and collector and a gifted taxidermist, was appointed its first curator.
1913
The provincial government proclaimed the Museum Act, defining the museum’s objectives: to secure and preserve specimens illustrating the natural history of the province, to collect anthropological material relating to the Indigenous peoples of the province, and to obtain information respecting the natural sciences.
1941
Thunderbird Park was created at the corner of Douglas and Belleville streets for the display of totem poles. In 1952, anthropology curator Wilson Duff initiated a pole restoration program and hired Kwakwaka‘wakw master carver Mungo ¯ ¯ Martin as chief carver for Thunderbird Park.
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
1963–1968
As the museum continued to grow and to attract more visitors, the province recognized that the time had come for it to expand. In 1963, Premier Bennett announced plans to build a new museum and archives as a Canadian Centennial project. The doors opened in 1968.
1977
The First Peoples galleries and Old Town opened to the public.
1979
Living Land, Living Sea, the first phase of the permanent natural history galleries, opened, including the installation of Woolly the Mammoth!
2003
Proclamation of a new museum act. The BC Archives, Helmcken House, the Netherlands Centennial Carillon, Thunderbird Park, St. Ann’s Schoolhouse and the Royal BC Museum came together as the Royal BC Museum Corporation.
Sept 18, 2020
The Province of BC announced the new Collections and Research Building to be located in Colwood, BC, as the first step in the museum modernization project.
Royal BC Museum began the process of modernizing the human history galleries with the closure of the third floor— the first step in the work of telling the true histories of all people in British Columbia.
Nov 3, 2021
History to be continued…
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Cindy Van Volsem, exhibition fabrication specialist, working on a model of Pacific golden chanterelle (Cantharellus formosus).
SPORE-ADIC
WHAT’S INSIGHT
F E AT U R E
Showcasing BC’s Marvellous Mushrooms
By Kate Kerr Exhibit Fabrication Specialist
BC boasts over 3,400 different kinds of mushrooms. Now it can boast at least 10 more—but they’re not the real thing.
T
he exhibit fabricators of the Royal BC Museum have created intricate models of 10 of the most popular edible mushrooms of the province. Each little life-size model is set in its own mini diorama, showing the setting where it might be found. These remarkable representations are part of the Royal BC Museum’s newest travelling exhibition, BC’s Marvellous Mushrooms, which hit the road in October 2021. This exhibition celebrates the thousands of mushroom species of this province, their many uses, and those who study, harvest and engage with them. The exhibition accompanies the Royal BC Museum’s newest handbook, Mushrooms of British Columbia, by Andy MacKinnon and Kem Luther (a number-one bestseller in BC!). The book provides a comprehensive illustrated overview of the science and uses of these fungal fruiting bodies. The
exhibition in turn highlights some of the most fascinating species in the province—some familiar, some bizarre, some delicious and some deadly—and explores what we know about these fabulous fungi. Through the 14 colourful and informative display panels, visitors will discover the ways that mushrooms are subjects of study; sources of food, dyes and medicines; and objects of ceremony and beauty. Exhibition designer Ken Johnson has found the process of getting to know the world of BC’s mushrooms fascinating. “I really enjoyed learning about mushrooms that weren’t on my radar. I wasn’t aware of the diversity, complexity and beauty of this lifeform,” says Ken. “It makes me want to go out and find them in the woods!” Ken’s display panels use close-up imagery that gives the viewer the opportunity to see mushrooms from a new perspective: a mouse’s-eye view. (continues next page)
CREATIVITY W I N TER 2022
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F E AT U R E
This travelling exhibition accompanies the newly released Royal BC Museum publication Mushrooms of British Columbia by Andy MacKinnon and Kem Luther. It explores the science and uses of these fungal fruiting bodies, highlighting some of the most fascinating of the 3,400 known species in the province.
Devin Hobbins, exhibition fabrication specialist recreating the pine mushroom (Tricholoma murrillianum).
The showcases provide yet another perspective, too: that of the mushroom forager. One of the three showcases included in the exhibition displays the tools of the mycologist’s and mushroom forager’s trade, complete with field guide, collecting basket, terrain map, mushroom knife and brush. The other two showcases feature the models created by the exhibitions team. The 10 recreated species were selected by the book’s authors as some of the more popular edible species in the province. Part of the creation process for a scientific museum display is to study the subject matter deeply, so that nothing is represented incorrectly. (Some of the team were able to work from real mushrooms; the rest had to rely on research and photos.) But the technicians on this team enjoy that part of the job. “It was good to learn the actual biological specifics of the mushrooms,” says Devin Hobbins, the newest member of the team. Once the science was established, the team set to work selecting the materials and techniques that would best replicate the myriad shapes and textures of the fungal world. This is the time when creativity can come to the fore.
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“There was a lot of collaborating and brainstorming,” says Devin. “In terms of methods and processes and how to accurately portray these distinctive traits, we shared a lot of knowledge.” Colin Longpre, a veteran of the exhibitions team, adds, “It’s a fun process, trying to overcome some challenges to create a complex natural object out of everyday materials. As a team we played around with different materials and came up with what works best.” It turns out that the best materials for making a mushroom are a combination of paper, modelling clay, high density foam and epoxies. We even did some experimentation with 3D printing. Everything had to be exact to pass inspection by the expert eye of Mushrooms of British Columbia co-author Andy MacKinnon himself. We always strive to get our models right, but in this case it was especially important: edible and poisonous mushrooms may only be a gill pattern or texture apart. Devin says his pine mushroom model was given the thumbs up, with the caution “not to make it too ‘cottony’ on the ring and cap margin”—that would make it more like the poisonous Smith’s amanita.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
BC’s Marvellous Mushrooms interpretive graphic panels on canvas.
Unfortunately, these models will lack one distinctive characteristic used in mushroom identification: the scent. Smith’s amanita has a mild and unpleasant odour, while the edible pine mushroom smells like cinnamon candy, with “overtones of dirty gym socks.” While the exhibits team could easily rise to the challenge of recreating scent, the models will be behind glass, so not within nose-reach. But all the important details about scent are included in the book. If we learned one thing from this project, it’s that mushrooms, as marvellous and beautiful as they are, can also be deadly, and experience and training is required to safely explore their uses, tastes and smells. Watch for this exhibition as it travels around BC and experience the same wonder and enthusiasm the exhibitions team found while studying and recreating their intricate subjects. All the fabricators say that sculpting realistic mushrooms was a lot of fun. “That’s the most satisfying thing,” says Devin, “when someone can’t tell the difference between the model and the real thing.” Even though you’re in on the secret, you still may be fooled by the team’s skilled replicas of these marvellous mushrooms.
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P HO T O S H AR D S
Archival conservator Lauren Buttle pinning shards of a glassplate negative into a pincushion tray.
Preparing to Move Broken Glass-Plate Negatives
M
oving is hard work. Moving an entire museum collection and an archive is a lot of hard work. The preparation for our move to the new Collections and Research Building is underway, and we’re busy making sure that collection material is packed in a safe, stable way, so it can withstand handling and transport. Any material that is not stable enough to be moved is flagged for conservation. By Lauren Buttle Archival Conservator
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One common conservation flag involves collections of broken glass-plate photographs. Glass plates were used as a support for photographic slides and negatives well into the first half of the twentieth century, and there are many in the collections. Many have undergone treatment in the past couple of years, but these treatments are time-consuming—too time-consuming, given the quantity of glass plates and the staff available. This means some plates will need to be moved before they are treated. But how do you move sharp, fragile shards of glass in a manner that keeps both the photographs and those handling them safe, while also maintaining the links these plates have to their respective collections? The solution we’ve developed involves custom-made pincushion trays. The trays are made from corrugated plastic board and high-quality foam, then lined with a plastic fabric to create a smooth surface for the plates. The glass-plate shards are set into the tray, one piece at a time, beginning in one of the
WHAT’S INSIGHT
Archival conservator Lauren Buttle assembling shards of a broken glassplate negative on a transmitted-light table before transferring them to a pincushion tray.
Two broken glass-plate negatives pinned into a pincushion tray.
corners. Each is held in place with a small block of foam, pinned with a stainless-steel dressmaker’s pin. Once enough pins have been applied to hold this first shard in place, the next shard is added. This process is repeated until all shards have been aligned and secured. The trays, which are large enough to hold almost any plate in the collection (and sometimes two!), stack into standard-size record-storage boxes. Each is numbered so the exact position of each plate can be precisely tracked. These pincushion trays will provide temporary protection for each shard as collections are moved from one building to another, and afterwards as the plates await conservation treatment. The downside of this system is that it drastically increases
the amount of space these plates take up— and in the context of most archival and museum institutions, space comes at a high premium. But since we are moving to a new, larger facility, the temporary increase in footprint is not a concern. In the years to come, these plates will be treated and returned to the storage boxes that they were pulled from—work which will take place in the new laboratories of the Collections and Research Building in Colwood.
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W
O
O ER OK
JUAN DE FUCA PUBLIC LIBRARY
By Sandra Hudson Communications Consultant
AD
A Trip to Colwood with the Royal BC Museum Learning Team
ESQUIMALT LAGOON
M
C O
L
SO
D
O
ET CH OS IN RO AD
ROYAL BEACH PARK
FUTURE HOME OF THE COLLECTIONS AND RESEARCH BUILDING
Meet the Museum O
SAANICH
L A NG F O R D
E S QUIMALT
VICTORIA COLWOOD
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OAK BAY
n a sunny Saturday in late September, the Royal BC Museum Learning team, led by Chris O’Connor and Kim Gough, travelled to the future home of the museum’s Collections and Research Building (CRB): Colwood, BC, located 15 kilometres west of downtown Victoria, for an opportunity to meet members of the community and share information about the museum’s programs, collections, research and exhibitions. The new CRB will be a part of Colwood’s Royal Bay neighbourhood, surrounded by public park space and close to new schools. Chris and Kim, along with museum volunteers, visited three locations: the Juan de Fuca branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library, Esquimalt Lagoon and Royal Bay Beach. At each location, visitors of all ages played games, asked questions and won prizes. “We wanted to show and tell what we do at the museum—so having the chance to bring out our Learning van and pop-up tent, and lead some hands-on activities, was really fun,” says Hanna Cho, head of Learning and Community Engagement at the Royal BC Museum. “In addition, Chris and Kim got to meet our new neighbours and learn more about the Colwood community.” The first stop of the day, at the Juan de Fuca public library, saw guests playing History Mystery, a guessing game designed to boost knowledge of BC history, as well as spinning the wheel for prizes in a fun game of
WHAT’S INSIGHT
(above) Learning program developer Chris O’Connor, volunteer Patti Williams and learning program developer Kim Gough at Esquimalt Lagoon. (left) Learning program developer Chris O’Connor enjoying a conversation with visitors. (right) Learning program developer Kim Gough inviting visitors to take a closer look.
museum-and-archives trivia. Colwood mayor Rob Martin was on hand to chat with local residents and the museum team, saying, “Colwood is thrilled to be the future home of the Royal BC Museum’s Collections and Research Building. A beautifully designed and energy-efficient Collections and Research Building is going to be a game-changer for the city that will positively impact Colwood schools, families and children for generations.” Next came a visit to Esquimalt Lagoon, a migratory bird sanctuary established in 1931. The sanctuary is home to a large variety of birds, including the Pacific great blue heron, a species of special concern under the federal Species at Risk Act. It’s a great spot for visitors to learn more about all kinds of birds. The Learning team offered lots of information and answered questions about the abundance of birds in the area, sharing several bird and bird-related artifacts from the museum. The last stop of the afternoon was Royal Beach Park, not far from where a mammoth tooth was discovered at the local gravel pit in the early 1960s. The mammoth tooth is one of the artifacts in the museum’s vast collection
Colwood is thrilled to be the future home of the Royal BC Museum’s Collections and Research Building. A beautifully designed and energy efficient Collections and Research Building is going to be a game-changer for the city that will positively impact Colwood schools, families and children for generations.
that tells the history of Colwood, linking the museum’s collection to Colwood’s ancient seaside landscape. Visitors were excited to check out a replica mammoth tooth and an actual piece of mammoth tusk, and to learn more about the discovery in their community. The Royal BC Museum’s collection belongs to all people in BC; this outreach event provided the Learning team with a wonderful opportunity to share parts of the collection with the Colwood community. The team is enthusiastic about getting to know their new neighbours and look forward to many more opportunities to share and explore the collection together when the CRB opens in 2025.
— Rob Martin, Colwood mayor
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F E AT U R E
By Claudia Copley, Entomology Collection Manager and Researcher, and Dr. Ken Marr, Curator of Botany
E X P E R T S
I N
T H E
F I E L D
A Return to Fieldwork for Natural History Staff
A
fter a year’s hiatus caused by the pandemic, and despite heat domes, wildfires and smoke-filled skies, the Spider Diversity of BC and the Botany of BC Mountains teams returned to the field in July 2021 as part of our continued effort to document the biodiversity of this vast, diverse and unique province. Participants included curator of botany Ken Marr, entomology collections manager Claudia Copley, collection manager Darren Copley and research associate Robb Bennett. Various staff joined us from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD) and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (MoE). In addition to collecting plants, spiders and insects, we collected mushroom tissue samples for DNA analysis on behalf of retired MoE mycologist Dr. Shannon Berch, who has discovered species new to science among our previous collections.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
(left) Smoky skies in Mount Robson Provincial Park. (right) Yellowhead Helicopters arriving to transport us back to Valemount, BC.
The Spider Diversity of BC team started in the Whistler area for the annual bioblitz sponsored by the Whistler Naturalists Society. Early results include the collection of a species that is probably new to science and several that have not been collected previously here, despite the area having been relatively well sampled during previous bioblitzes. A number of habitat types come together in the Whistler region, creating a diverse array of ecosystems that keep things interesting year after year; the local natural history club has documented 4,363 species! While the spider team was at Whistler, Ken Marr was making the first-ever plant collections from two mountains in Wells Gray Provincial Park: Grenier Peak and another peak northeast of Mount Hogue. Here Ken was joined by Chris Nowotny (BC Parks and Protected Areas section head), Mike Ryan (FLNRORD research ecologist and bryophyte expert) and Jason Straka (MoE program ecologist). They collected specimens of every species encountered, targeting habitats that range from dry, sparsely vegetated, windswept ridgetops to moist, lush meadows. Chris Nowotny took numerous photos for iNaturalist, doing his part to contribute to the BC Nature Challenge and BC Parks iNaturalist Project (inaturalist.org/projects/bc-parks). Both teams worked together to collect specimens in the Yellowjacket Peak area of Mount Robson Provincial Park. Museum staff were again joined by Mike Ryan and Jason Straka, as well as César Estevo, a summer conservation intern with BC Parks, and Dawn Marks from MoE, who joined to specifically help with invertebrate sampling, emphasizing pollinating insects. In these difficult-to-access alpine areas we find it most efficient to camp a couple of nights in order to maximize time in the field. Our camp typically includes two shelters, one for cooking (to keep food away from our tents) and one for processing specimens.
Unlike some of our previous collecting trips, the rain held off until the last evening of the three-day stay in Mount Robson. Smoky skies blanketed the views and gave the world an eerie glow, but the timing of our sampling was ideal in terms of peak floral bloom, and we are certain to have some interesting new records. Funding for fieldwork in Wells Gray and Mount Robson Provincial Parks was provided by BC Parks through direct funding to the Royal BC Museum for park-focused biodiversity fieldwork and a Park Enhancement Fund grant. A portion of this funding comes from the purchase of BC Parks–themed licence plates, and from direct donations to the BC Parks Foundation, supporting many efforts in BC Parks. Yellowhead Helicopters sponsored our work in the form of a discounted rate. We are grateful for their safe and accommodating flying that positioned us in locations from which no natural history collections have been made in the past. The partnerships and collaborations we have established mean that we are still able to meet the Royal BC Museum’s mandate “to secure, receive and preserve specimens, artifacts and archival and other materials that illustrate the natural or human history of British Columbia” (as set out in the
Chris Nowotny, BC Parks, photographing plants in Wells Gray Provincial Park.
Museum Act). Reaching these protected areas is critical, because there is still so much to discover, and what we report becomes essential documentation for BC Parks, serving as a baseline of information in the face of increasingly rapid change. Final reports of our findings will be provided to BC Parks and the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and Ktunaxa First Nations, on whose traditional land both Wells Gray and Mount Robson exist.
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F E AT U R E EXPERTS IN THE FIELD
By Dr. Joel Gibson, Curator of Entomology, and Dr. Henry Choong, Curator of Invertebrates
Insects, Plants & Algae
B Beach wrack, Calvert Island, showing feather boa kelp (Egregia) in the centre and giant kelp (Macrocystis) surrounding it.
Royal BC Museum entomology curator Dr. Joel Gibson standing in eelgrass and algae exposed at high tide, Saltspring Island.
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Pebbly beach, Rebecca Spit Provincial Marine Park, with wrack along the high-tide line (foreground).
Biodiversity on Shoreline Wrack
ritish Columbia has more than 25,000 km of coastline, with many different kinds of beaches, estuaries and lagoons. A great diversity of species live on the sandy or rocky shores between the intertidal zone and the high-tide line. Scientists monitor and study the biodiversity of these coastal areas to see how it changes over time. Significant changes in biodiversity could be a sign of natural or human-caused disturbances in these habitats.
One important component of beach ecosystems is wrack. This is the seaweed and marine-plant debris that washes ashore after being torn from the seafloor by waves, tides and boats, and becomes a drying, decaying mass on the shore. Wrack shelters and feeds a great variety of beach invertebrates, and many vertebrate species, such as seabirds, feed on the invertebrates in turn. It may not look or smell appetizing to humans, but decomposing wrack is both delicious food and important shelter for many shoreline invertebrates. We estimate that half of beach-dwelling invertebrate species depend on wrack for survival. Common wrack-dependent species include beach hoppers (amphipods), kelp flies and surf flies. Predators like rove beetles, maritime earwigs and beach wolf spiders seek out their prey within the wrack. Since 2017, Royal BC Museum curators Dr. Joel Gibson (entomology) and Dr. Henry Choong (invertebrates) have been observing, collecting and documenting some of the beach-wrack invertebrate communities of Vancouver Island and
the Gulf Islands. Visits to dozens of beaches have produced thousands of records identifying hundreds of species. All specimens are kept in the Royal BC Museum natural history collections, and all data is freely shared with collaborators across the province and the world. This field work has led to important research questions: Are the wrack communities in BC different from those in the rest of the world? Do different types of wrack (eelgrass versus kelp, for example) support different invertebrate communities? Our work will continue for the foreseeable future, as there are many more beaches and species to document. In the meantime, it’s important for everyone (and our dogs) to leave wrack alone. A well-groomed or “clean” beach, free from algae or seagrass wrack, is a beach robbed of its biodiversity.
WHAT’S INSIGHT Will Mackenzie, research ecologist (FLNRORD), recording plant species abundance near Quarrie Peak, Elk Valley.
ALPINE PLANT SAMPLING T
Collaborations with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change
Caged cones of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) above Berg Lake, Mount Robson Provincial Park.
Rare (blue-listed) androsace buckwheat (Eriogonum androsaceum) at Mount Ingram, Elk Valley.
his summer I joined three Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoE) initiatives: two involve alpine plant diversity, and the third the preservation of whitebark pine. The first initiative examined a rare, high-elevation rough fescue grassland in the Elk River Valley in southeastern BC, documenting the animals and plants that live here and in nearby alpine habitats. Over two weeks, 20 biologists, assembled by MoE ecologist Emily Cameron, took thousands of photographs; collected specimens of plants and insects, documented the abundance of bighorn sheep, elk and mountain-goat droppings (to estimate how much they graze here); and collected ecological data in the form of vegetation plots and soil analysis. This is part of a multi-year effort by the MoE and the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD). This was the farthest south that I have worked, and many species were new to me. New populations of several rare species were discovered— welcome data for the BC Conservation Data Centre at the MoE.
By Dr. Ken Marr Curator of Botany
For the second initiative, I joined conservation intern César Estevo (MoE) in Mount Robson Provincial Park for a widespread BC Parks project to document potential future changes in alpine vegetation. At 5-metre intervals along a 50-metre line, we recorded the species present and their abundance within a 0.5-by-0.5-metre frame. Every four years this will be repeated in order to evaluate vegetation change. The third initiative also took place in Mount Robson Provincial Park. For the past several years park staff have placed protective wire meshes over the cones of selected whitebark pines in order to protect the developing seeds from birds and mammals. This is part of an effort in collaboration with the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation (whitebarkfound.org) to save this species from white pine blister rust, an introduced fungus that has killed thousands of trees in western North America. The trees that are selected are genetically resistant to this fungus. Later in the fall, staff will return and harvest the seeds, which they then plant in a greenhouse. Once established, these seedlings will be planted back into the area from which they were collected. So far, we have learned much about the optimal manner in which to plant the seedlings, and the program has succeeded in establishing young trees. These are only a few of the examples of collaboration between the museum and other government ministries.
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T
he Orcinus Orca SKAAnaa painting by Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas was commissioned for the Royal BC Museum’s exhibition Orcas: Our Shared Future. Michael is a contemporary artist whose wide-ranging artistic practice explores themes of identity, environmentalism and the human condition. The painting illustrates human–orca relationships across time, space and cultures. Come see it in its entirety up close, along with works by Richard Hunt, Art Thompson, Bill Reid and more!
NOT JUST BLACK AND WHITE
THE ART OF ORCAS
WHAT’S INSIGHT
Learn more about the intricacies of the mural at rbcm.ca/orcas or pick up a copy of your own in our companion publication, Spirits of the Coast: Orcas in Science, Art and History ($29.95; edited by Dr. Martha Black, Dr. Lorne Hammond and Dr. Gavin Hanke, with Nikki Sanchez), which is available through local bookshops, the Royal Museum Shop and online at rbcm.ca/spirits.
Orcinus Orca SKAAnaa by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
#1
on the BC Bestseller List
Mushrooms of British Columbia A ROYAL BC MUSEUM HANDBOOK
GET YOUR COPY AT
rbcm.ca/mushrooms
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CARVING AND CATCHING UP IN THUNDERBIRD PARK
F E AT U R E
In Conversation with
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By Wesley MacInnis Communications Specialist
Richard Hunt
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ichard Hunt held the position of master carver at the Royal BC Museum carving program in Thunderbird Park from 1974 to 1984, succeeding his father, Henry Hunt, and family friend, Mungo Martin, in the role. Since beginning to carve at the age of 13, Richard Hunt has gone on to design major projects and win awards for his art, philanthropy and leadership. The Royal Canadian Mint has licensed his designs for legal tender three times. He is a recipient of both the Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada, and he holds an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the University of Victoria. In 1979, he independently carved his first totem pole at Thunderbird Park. In October 2021—almost 50 years later— he returned to Thunderbird Park to repair, repaint and restore that totem pole at the request of the Royal BC Museum. While Richard carved, I spoke with him about his career, the revitalization of Northwest Coast carving and the future of Thunderbird Park.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
Wesley MacInnis: How does it feel to be back in Thunderbird Park? Richard Hunt: I was kind of brought up here, at Thunderbird Park, because my dad came down here when I was two years old to help Mungo [Martin] repair some old poles. It was always my dream to become a carver. WM: Is this the first totem pole you carved independently? RH: Basically. In 1972, I went to the University of Pennsylvania for a five-week carving course and I made a pole there, but this is the first one that actually looks like a pole. The other one was a little rough. WM: How would you describe your carving style? RH: It’s the Kwaguilth style. But, you know, my style is my dad’s style. Is that Kwaguilth style? I don’t know. I read in a book that our people changed the most. We never stayed the same. We always changed our designs and did things differently. So, I look at what my dad did and I try to reinterpret it and, if I can, make it bit better. WM: One of the figures on this pole is missing part of his finger. RH: That’s my friend Slash. He used to come down here when I was carving. WM: Did he actually lose part of his finger? RH: Yeah, when he was a kid, they played a game to see who could get closest to an axe stroke. Well, someone got too close to him and chopped part of his finger off. He was best man at my wedding.
WM: What part of the totem pole restoration requires the most work? RH: These rays down here, one of them was quite rotten, so it needs to be replaced. Did you know I have an honorary doctorate from UVic? Did you know I’m a doctor? Well, I’m going to be doing an amputation here [he points to the rotten wood], then I’ll insert a new ray with some dowels and—well, technology has changed— so we’ll be using liquid nail to hold it in place. I’ll give the work a 25-year guarantee because I don’t think I’ll be here in 25 years. WM: Traditionally, when totem poles age and eventually fall over, you don’t repair them, you just leave them?
RH: If totem poles are in the public domain, you look after them, but if it was on my reserve, we’d just let it fall down and go back to the ground. WM: What do you hope to see in the future for Thunderbird Park? Do you hope people will keep carving here? RH: Yeah, a group of us were trying to get the carving program going again but, at the last meeting I went to, they said it could take up to ten years. Originally, we were aiming for two years. I thought of myself as a working exhibit [when I carved here] because you’re in front of the public all day, so people can see the work. (continues next page)
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F E AT U R E
I’ve carved other places. I went to Knott’s Berry Farm, outside of Los Angeles. I carved a house front for them and was going to carve two totem poles and make a bunch of masks over three months, but they wanted me to dress up in turnof-the-century clothing, like real itchy pants, suspenders and moccasins. They also wanted me to work 12-hour days too. So, I left. I told them, “I’m taking the moccasins though. They’ll remind me to never do this again.” Then I was going to go to Florida, but it was the same thing: a theme park. You go on a couple rides and then go see the Indians carve. So I said no, I don’t think I can do that. WM: What does Thunderbird Park mean, or represent, to you? RH: Well, the revival of Northwest Coast art. This is where it started. Before Mungo Martin had a potlatch here [in 1952], we weren’t even allowed to dance and sing, but it brought all that back. And now our work is recognized as a world-class art, not just a craft.
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WM: What else are you working on right now? RH: Something that is also important to me is my work with a group of Victoria High School alumni. We’re working to get back lands that have been taken from the school for a housing development. The school board is taking away six of the eight lanes from the track and reducing the rugby field to a soccer field, when we really need a rugby-and-soccer field. It will also be hard for the kids to run a race on a track with only two lanes. The kids of Victoria High School deserve what all the other schools are getting. And I’m working with a group to stop the importation of fake Indigenous art, to preserve our cultures. We are also working to stop non-Indigenous artists from producing fake Indigenous art, and we are trying to get government support. Restoration work for Richard Hunt’s totem pole was completed in early November 2021, and it was re-raised on December 20, 2021, in Thunderbird Park, where it will continue to stand proudly for years to come.
PUBLISHING
WHAT’S INSIGHT
An Unvarnished Christmas An excerpt from Unvarnished: Autobiographical Sketches by Emily Carr Edited by Dr. Kathryn Bridge
In 1905, Emily Carr moved to Vancouver to teach art classes. In this excerpt from the Royal BC Museum’s Unvarnished, a new collection of Carr’s unpublished writings edited by curator emerita Kathryn Bridge, Carr sketches a holiday trip back to Victoria to see her sisters, Lizzie and Alice—complete with a menagerie of pets. The prose preserves Carr’s distinctively eccentric writing style, as well as her quirky personality.
NEW FROM THE ROYAL BC MUSEUM $24.95
Get it now at rbcm.ca/books (use coupon code memberbook and get 10% off), the Royal Museum Shop or your favourite local bookstore
A
t Xmas time I packed the parrots [Jane and Sally] in baskets, the bullfinches in one cage, Peggie [the rat] & her offspring in another with Peter hanging from the top tied up in a stocking. A little gold fish in my bag and Billie [the dog] chucked below decks I went home. Enroute the Lady in the next chair to mine had rocked the observation room with a screech when out of an innocent looking wicker bag between our chairs had popped a snow[y] head with full yellow crest and a very sweet voice said into her stocking bag “Hello! Sally’s a Sally.” I rose in embarrassment & took my bags & blankets out on deck. Presently a man tapped me on the shoulder. “Does it belong to you?” pointing. There flopping violently on the deck was the handsomest of my two gold fish. The fool had kicked my bag containing the jar of water. I hurried the fish back into the empty jar & rushed for the washroom. When I returned with my handbag tied on the top of the wide jar Jane was laughing diabolically and people were looking at one another. Everyone thought everyone else could not be quite right & nobody suspected the innocent looking basket under my seat. Finally we got to Victoria & I unchecked the Bullfinches & rats from the Petty Baggage & Billie from below decks & there was my sister waiting with the old horse Renie & the chaise. Lizzie looked extraordinarily down when she saw all the creatures [for] she was our anointed housekeeper. Peter the rat tied up in the stocking so that he would not eat the coconut shell full of babies was the last straw & I hustled everything except the dog who was not allowed in the house and the parrots who were only allowed to sit on the kitchen chair up to my bed room. I frequently ran down to Victoria for a Sunday & contrived to leave all the creatures except the cocatoe & Dog for one night. Because of the time I left Sally and she had screamed for a week & the landlord had threatened. The return boat sailed at midnight. Alice always came down & saw me on board though she was often very tired & I begged her not [to] and when I was once on the boat it never failed that I looked across the little harbour and began to cry. I don’t know what I was crying for but I always had a hard cry on leaving Victoria though I was very happy in my Vancouver work. Perhaps Vancouver was more cityish & there was less freedom. On one of these returns it was a very stormy night. I checked old Billie [in the hold]. At the gang plank I said goodbye to Alice, the porter carried Sally & my bag aboard there was no sleeping accommodation to be had except the top bunk in a 3 berth room. No 2 was getting undressed. “I’ll wait outside till you are in bed,” I said. I felt the cry coming on. I put my bags under the sofa. “If that bag squirms do[n’t] be alarmed there is a parrot in it.” W I N TER 2022
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Two vertebrae (backbones) of an early aetiocetid whale found in the Sooke Formation of Vancouver Island.
The atlas (first neck vertebra) of a squalodelphinid, an ancient relative of modern river dolphins, from the Sooke Formation of Vancouver Island.
By Dr. Victoria Arbour Curator of Palaeontology
WHALEONTOLOGY AT T H E R OYA L B C M U S E U M
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oday, the waters around the shores of Vancouver Island are home to many species of whales, like the iconic Southern Resident orcas or the giant filter-feeding grey whales and humpbacks. But did you know that whales also swam in these waters 25 million years ago?
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Over the years, many interesting bits and pieces of marine mammals have been collected from places like Muir Creek Beach, Kirby Creek and Sombrio Beach. But besides the partial skeleton of an unusual animal called a desmostylian—sometimes referred to as a sea hippo—none of these fossils have been studied in detail. University of Victoria undergraduate science student Elizabeth Rohlicek worked with me over the last year to dig deep into the museum’s collection of whale fossils from southern Vancouver Island. Whale fossils on Vancouver Island come from a set of rocks that geologists call the Carmanah Group, and most of these were formed during the Oligocene Epoch, about 34 to 23 million years ago. Carmanah Group rocks often form cliffs full of light-coloured fossil shells, but every so often, someone stumbles across a dark brown piece of fossil bone. Our collection includes many ribs and rib fragments, vertebrae (backbones), small pieces of skulls and jaws, and even a scapula (a shoulder blade). What kinds of whales did these bones come from?
WHAT’S INSIGHT
Pieces of the skull of an aetiocetid, an early fossil baleen whale, found on Vancouver Island in the 25-million-year-old Sooke Formation.
Vertebra from an early fossil whale, possibly a basilosaurid, from Vancouver Island.
Elizabeth Rohlicek holding a vertebra (backbone) of an early aetiocetid whale found in the Sooke Formation of Vancouver Island.
The Oligocene is an important time period for palaeontologists interested in the evolution of whales. Although the ancestors of whales walked on land on four legs, by the Oligocene they had fully adapted to life in the water, losing their hind legs and evolving powerful tails with flukes. Today there are two major groups of whales: odontocetes, or toothed whales, who kept the sharp teeth of their ancestors and who hunt using echolocation, and mysticetes, or baleen whales, who lost their teeth and became filter-feeders. The Oligocene is when the ancestors of today’s mysticetes were beginning to lose their teeth, and when the ancestors of today’s odontocetes were evolving the ability to echolocate. Elizabeth’s work has revealed some surprising things about the diversity of British Columbia’s ancient whales. At least three different types lived in this area at the time, but none would have looked much like the whales alive today. Skull fragments and some small vertebrae belonged to an aetiocetid mysticete, which had both baleen and teeth, and was only about six metres
long. A single neck bone could only have come from a squalodelphinid odontocete, an extinct member of the larger family that today includes the Ganges and Indus river dolphins. And a single huge vertebra probably came from a basilosaurid, an archaic type of whale that was not closely related to any of today’s whales and which had a long, serpentine body. Our work on these fossils is still ongoing, and there are almost certainly more ancient whale fossils out there waiting to be spotted by the right person at the right time! Fossils are protected in British Columbia and are managed under the Fossil Management Framework, so please contact the museum if you think you have found something interesting. We’d love to see what you find!
LEA R N MO RE Learning Portal: Elizabeth Rohlicek Studies Whale Fossils https://youtu.be/Mo4M3Ef6Tkc
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Preserving Rolled Maps and Plans for the Future
ROLLING WITH
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t the end of 2019, as we began to prepare to pack and move, I was tasked with creating a strategy to rehouse the various collections of rolled maps, architectural plans and technical drawings stored on site at the BC Archives. This was no simple feat, since the archives have more than 4,000 rolled maps and plans. I’m the archives collections manager, so finding or creating the appropriate housing for records is a large part of my job. When considering housing options for records, there are often challenges such as unusual sizes and formats, different material compositions, and the condition of the records. All these elements are involved in choosing the best housing. One of the biggest challenges when housing maps and plans is usually size. Best practice for storing maps is to store them flat in folders in map cabinet drawers. But sometimes the best practice just isn’t realistic, especially when you factor in available space, budget and resources. Given the number of rolled plans we have, it was important for me to prioritize so I didn’t get completely overwhelmed. I decided to focus on plans that were already at risk due to their tight quarters—the ones rolled and stored in long narrow wooden drawers or cubby holes. Then, to narrow my focus even further, I chose one collection—the Ocean Falls series GR-3337: Engineering Office plans and technical drawings. (You can read the description for the collection at search-bcarchives. royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/engineering-office-plans-and-technical-drawings.)
WHAT’S INSIGHT
THE PLANS Plans neatly rolled and boxed with twill tape on both ends.
By Beverly Paty Archives Collections Manager
Dowels removed from the plans.
The part of the collection I was focusing on consists of architectural plans and technical drawings stored in two large wooden containers. One container held 538 plans rolled and crammed into 34 drawers, and the other had 1,246 plans rolled into 70 drawers and a number of open cubby holes. The things I had to consider during my initial assessment included The total number of plans and the dimensions of each plan.
The formats and material composition of the plans (velum, plastic, diazotype and blue print) and specific storage-need requirements for them. Best options for storage: flat or rolled? (What is best for the plan? What is realistic given the space available?) Accessibility: Are these records regularly accessed? Should any be digitized before rehousing? Will any require conservation work? Do we have the necessary supplies for storage, or will they need to be ordered? Where will the plans be stored once they are rehoused? On site or off site?
The length and width of the plans varied, but the average was about a metre wide and almost twice as long. Half of the plans were rolled around wooden dowels, and the other half were rolled into drawers or cubby holes with their ends exposed. Sometimes there were more than 20 plans rolled together in one drawer. Most of the plans were blueprints or diazotypes (two photographic processes with different storage needs), some were polyester or acetate plastic film, and a few were velum. I also had to contend with rusty staples, failing adhesives and mould. I knew I would have to unroll each plan or group of plans to assess their needs and determine the best storage method. If the plans lay flat immediately upon unrolling, they could be housed in large acid-free folders and put into map-cabinet drawers. The rest I rolled around threeinch-diameter tubes (either ethafoam® or cardboard wrapped in polyethylene sheeting). I rolled no more than eight plans
per tube, and then I wrapped the entire roll in an acid-free paper. To secure the roll I tied twill tape around both ends and wrote the identifying numbers of the plans on the paper wrapping. When I completed five new rolls, I stored each group of five in a custom-sized box with Ethafoam® supports. Once all the plans were rolled, boxed and labelled, the hunt for a location to store them began. Due to the size of the containers, this would be no small feat, but locations were found. The next steps were updates to the collections management system and online finding aids. COVID-19 protocols did prevent the wheels from turning too quickly, and so did some plans requiring conservation treatment, but now that this project is complete, it gives me great satisfaction knowing these plans are housed properly and are safe to move. Now on to the next project.
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By Hugh MacIntosh, Natural History Data Steward
TA C K L I N G
THE BACKLOG Faster Cataloguing with Custom Software BEFORE:
A collection of shells in the invertebrate zoology backlog. While the specimens are in no immediate danger, this is not how we would like to store or organize them long term. Fortunately, the specimens have good associated data and can be processed in bulk.
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he Royal BC Museum acquires tens of thousands of objects every year. Some are collected through the work of our curators, some are sent to us by external researchers and some are graciously donated by community members. All new acquisitions are appreciated, as they help tell the story of BC’s environment and history. Once at the museum they can be cared for and stored for future generations. But arriving at the museum is only the first step. Before they are ready to be stored or put on display, they need to be assigned a unique catalogue number, added to our electronic database, labelled and packaged. Small donations can often be processed quickly, but some acquisitions include hundreds or thousands of items—the result of a busy field season or the life’s work of a passionate collector. Even once they are accessioned (officially added to the collection), it may be some time before they are fully processed. This is the dirty secret of many museum collections: the backlog. Everything in the 28
AFTER:
Part of the same series of shells after cataloguing, labelling and careful packaging. These specimens are ready to be filed in their proper places on the collection shelves and will last for hundreds of years.
backlog eventually gets processed; it just The key is making them speak the takes time—sometimes years. But what same language. Think how you might happens when the museum needs to move organize a table of data about a butterfly to the new Collections and Research collection. You’ll probably have a column Building in a few years? That’s when the for the species name, one for where it was task of tackling our backlog becomes urgent. collected, one for the date, one for any notes Cataloguing specimens in our database you may have, and so on. But what you might is time-consuming work, and it’s often hard call “species name,” our database stores as to get a good flow going. Each item needs to “ScientificName.” After we do a little bit of be accurately described, and any associated formatting, checking for spelling mistakes information entered into one of hundreds or inconsistencies and moving data to the of possible data fields. If an object is linked properly named columns, our software is to others in the collection, these links also ready to work its magic. Just to be sure, we need to be described. Just entering this import the data into a separate test version information can quickly become a full-time of our database so we can check that everyjob on top of all the other things a collection thing worked properly. If there are no issues, manager needs to take care of. then we import it all to the real database. If we can process specimens in bulk, What would have taken weeks or months is we can accomplish the task in a fraction accomplished in a matter of minutes! of the time. Fortunately for us, many In the last two years, we have been able large donations now arrive with all their to process over 92,000 items using this bulk associated data in a digital format, like an import tool. With a move on the horizon, Excel spreadsheet. Some brilliant minds getting the backlog processed is suddenly on our Digital team have developed special looking a lot more manageable. software that can help turn these spreadsheets into records in our own database.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
By Chris O’Connor Learning Program Developer
IN C O N V E R S AT I O N WITH
Designer Rodney Hazard
H
ope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum is currently on display in the Pocket Gallery of the Royal BC Museum. Later, it will be shown throughout British Columbia as a travelling exhibition. The exhibition is the story of Afro-diasporic “British Columbia” history, past, present and future. In the last edition of What’s InSight, I sat down with the curator and writer of the exhibition, Joshua Robertson, and president of the BC Black History Awareness Society, Silvia Mangue Alene. For this edition, I sit down with the designer of the exhibition, Rodney Hazard. Part of what makes the exhibition so powerful is the innovative and thoughtful design choices, which provide a colourful and vibrant container for a richly textured and vital story. (continues next page)
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Chris O’Connor: Rodney, can you tell me a little bit about your process of becoming a designer? Rodney Hazard: Since I was a kid I was always an artist, I was always drawing myself to sleep, always trying to express myself in one way or another. I used to draw a lot of anime characters, draw a lot of things from observation. I also took a lot of art classes in high school. And it was actually one of my older cousins that kind of showed me you could take this and do something with it. He went to school to study graphic design— he was doing a lot of the same things I was looking to do. So, I was like, “oh, I can take this art thing and make it into something.” Fast forward, I went to St. John's University in Queens, and from there I started learning about different types of design. I became really passionate about it and found ways to apply it to how it has to do with people. Design led me to a lot of different paths. I was always making music in parallel, I was interested in film in parallel. Design was a way for me to bridge the gap between all of these things. CO: Who are some designers or styles that inspire you? RH: I was always the type to look for a lot of contemporary design and seek out ways where people are breaking rules, if you know what I mean. There are a lot of interesting studios and designers out there, like Pyer Moss, Daniel Arsham and Jessica Walsh, who won’t just take type and put to a page, they’ll take the material and turn it into an experience. Very interesting perceptions and approaches to design. I’ve always been interested in design with some sort of human touch, and I think that's how to make it feel less mechanical and more relatable. CO: Can you talk a little bit about your company, how you approach working with clients, and how you work to further your style? RH: I have a company called Le Loup Studios, and it's a creative agency based out of Brooklyn in New York City. We specialize in creating bespoke visual solutions that normally go through the lanes of design, film or music. My process always starts by saying, “Okay, what's the human-first approach that we can take?” I always try to deconstruct things and look at the big picture. Instead of asking what, I ask why, in order to find the creative strategy behind things, to find out what people actually want to see, what people actually care about. I think we're at a place in the world where it's all about connectivity, you know, what's the human condition and how can we make it better?
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Rodney Hazard, designer of Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum.
CO: I imagine part of that is building those relationships early on with your clients so you can know who they are and who their users are, often in a short period of time. With that in mind, you are based out of Brooklyn, and the Royal BC Museum is here in Victoria. What has that process been like for you to work from a distance, with the BC Black History Awareness Society and the Royal BC Museum? RH: It's engaging, you know. I think it's very important work, and I love doing work like this, because I see myself as a student. I'm always learning new things, and even though the content of the exhibition is about the Black experience in British Columbia, and it isn't exactly my experience, it's still a shared experience. I really resonate with that and know how important it is to the community to have this exhibition happen, for them to be represented through their voices, in a human-centred way. I'm learning so much, and I'm excited to celebrate the community in the way that needs to be heard.
WHAT’S INSIGHT
Afrofuturism
Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum Pocket Gallery exhibition.
A cultural movement that uses the frame of science fiction and fantasy to reimagine the history of the African diaspora and to invoke a vision of a hopeful future in which Black people thrive: this movement is expressed through art, cinema, literature, music, fashion, etc.
CO: Where do museums fall short, and where do they hold potential?
CO: And as a last question, and in particular with our Hope Meets Action exhibition, what were some of the main design concepts you used during your process? RH: I think one of the main design concepts that has resonated with everyone is the idea of deconstruction, and deconstruction of the map of “British Columbia.” I wanted to bring it back to what it was like when it was just Indigenous territories. And then using that to inform the design language across the different areas of the exhibition. I have also been using some elements of Afrofuturism in the design: opal colours, big beautiful type, very bold in order to celebrate the culture. As well, the font was designed by a Black designer named Frank Adebiaye. I wanted to make sure that the design brought forward the key insights of the process and research that Josh, the writer and curator, did. CO: Well, you definitely did that. Amazing work. Thanks, Rodney. RH: Thank you.
ARTWORK BY SADE ALEXIS
RH: I do think museums in general should definitely collaborate with the community in the way we are doing it with this project. I think that this is very interesting, and though I've seen examples of it, I haven’t seen many. Often museums feel like they are gatekeepers, and it's hard to break through. I think that in this way, a lot of museums fall short. When you see things like our project happen, though, where communities are engaged with actually creating the exhibitions, you end up with something really beautiful, unique, compelling, true and authentic. Museums should look at what we did and do it more often.
Hope Meets Action Echoes Through the Black Continuum
Extended until March 31, 2022 Clifford Carl Hall Learn more at rbcm.ca/pocketgallery
RBCM_LeLoup_Bookmark_v3.indd 2
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7/5/21
Who Decides What Stays in the Museum Collection?
D E ACCESSIO By Sandra Hudson Communications Consultant
W
The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) lives in Arctic waters— well outside the museum’s regional mandate. This specimen will go to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC.
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ith more than seven million items in the Royal BC Museum collections and 27 linear kilometres of records in the BC Archives, the collections are both an enviable historical resource and a massive undertaking to properly steward. One vital element of managing the museum and archives collections is deaccessioning: the formal process of removing an object, material or specimen from the collections. Managing the collections is a dynamic process, as the composition of museum collections is ever changing. Deaccessioning is an ongoing process, but it is never done hastily or without robust conversation. The process is strictly guided by museum policy, as well as the guidance of Royal BC Museum curators, archivists and collections managers, who have immense knowledge of the collection. In managing the collections, one of the major concerns is whether materials have provincial significance or help further our understanding of BC’s human or natural history. If they don’t, they are considered for deaccession. (It’s important to note that the repatriation of Indigenous cultural belongings, ancestral remains and burial belongings in the museum’s care is a separate, unrelated process. The disposal of government records in the BC Archives is also a separate process, governed by BC’s Information Management Act.)
WHAT’S INSIGHT
(left) This hooded merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) is contaminated with arsenic and will be destroyed.
(right) Australian specimens like this platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) will go to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia, supporting their efforts to preserve global biodiversity.
NING Staff members also flag objects that may be better cared for at other institutions. The museum recognizes that some material in the collections may have greater significance for regional museums, galleries, libraries or archives. In the museum’s view, there is great value in supporting other institutions across the province grow their own collections and share items with their communities. Material that has deteriorated or is damaged beyond repair, including preserved natural history specimens, is also subject to scrutiny and potential deaccessioning. Duplicates (or objects that are very similar to others in the collection) are often also considered for deaccession. Finally, natural history specimens without data— most importantly, where and when they were collected—have little scientific value and are candidates for deaccessioning.
Once it’s decided that something should be deaccessioned, exchanging, transferring, donating or selling the materials to other museums, galleries, libraries or archives is the museum’s first preference. When this isn’t possible, the collections policy directs the museum to consider sale at public auction. The decision to deaccession is never made lightly by anyone in the museum and archives. Curators, archivists and collections managers are usually the first to identify objects that they recommend for deaccessioning. The advice of registrars, conservators and others in the Royal BC Museum community is essential when considering the composition of the collections. In every case, deaccessioning decisions are fully documented by staff, as is the recommended destination.
Ultimately, the Royal BC Museum Collections Committee makes the final decision about the deaccessioning of objects from the collections and submits their recommendations to the museum’s board of directors. The museum’s approach to deaccessioning is consistent with the best practices in the field. The museum has developed its policies in compliance with guidelines from the Canadian Museums Association and the International Council of Museums. According to the CMA, “deaccessioning is a necessary and appropriate tool in collections management for any museum or gallery. Curatorially motivated disposal is an integral part of collection management and a way for a museum or gallery to refine its collection.”
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By Liz Crocker, Learning Program Developer
HIDDEN
HISTORIES
Landscapes of Injustice on the Learning Portal
T
his scroll petition stretched out across multiple tables in the BC Archives reference room illustrates that old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The 1930 document lists the signatures of 1,487 British Columbians, all asking the provincial government to ban citizens of Asian descent (including Japanese-Canadians) from purchasing land or resources in BC. This lengthy, racist scroll was one of many archival resources identified in the Royal BC Museum and Archives’ collection in the multi-year Landscapes of Injustice project. One of the museum’s roles in the Landscapes of Injustice project was to develop and publish related online content on our popular Learning Portal. The Landscapes of Injustice Learning Portal pathway, like other pathways, is a cluster of different types of media related to a particular topic, in this case the dispossession and internment of Japanese-Canadians forced to leave their homes during the Second World War by the Canadian government, under the War Measures Act.
Researchers examine a scroll petition using a magnifying glass.
Read on for more about the resources available on the pathway.
Read The Read section provides links to a number of short articles and text resources. Read about how the fishing vessel Soyokaze was seized by the government from its owner Shigekazu “Smiley” Matsunaga, and how that same boat found its way to the Campbell River Museum on Vancouver Island.
“The Matsunaga family’s lives changed drastically in December 1941, when Japanese Canadians living on the BC coast were forcibly relocated to internment camps in the Interior. The Canadian Navy confiscated a total of 1,137 Japanese Canadian–owned fishing boats, which were brought to Annieville Dike on the Fraser River and tied in flotillas. The boats, including Matsunaga’s beloved Soyokaze, were sold by the Japanese Fishing Vessel Disposal Committee for rock-bottom prices, and the money made from the sale of personal possessions was used to pay for their owners’ detention.”
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WHAT’S INSIGHT
Watch
Listen
This section features videos related to the dispossession and internment of Japanese Canadians. One of the videos is a recording of a learning program I did in May 2021 with Landscapes of Injustice project manager Michael Abe. The program took place in Esquimalt Gorge Park on Vancouver Island, at the site of a former Japanese teahouse. Abe recounts compelling stories of what happened to the Japanese Canadian businessmen Yoshitaro Kishida, Hayato Takata and Kensuke Takata, who established and ran the popular local attraction. They, like thousands of other Japanese Canadian citizens, were forced out of their homes on the west coast of BC and into an internment camp in the interior of the province. Shortly after, local Esquimalt residents vandalized and looted the abandoned teahouse.
This section features audio recordings. Listen to Tatsuro “Buck” Suzuki, a JapaneseCanadian fisher, describe in a 1977 interview what it was like to have his boat confiscated. Suzuki also shares the fears that JapaneseCanadians faced during dispossession and internment. In 1942, approximately 1200 Japanese-Canadian fishing boats were confiscated by the Canadian Navy and brought to the Annieville Dike on Fraser River. The boats were later sold by the Japanese Fishing Vessel Disposal Committee.
Look
Teach
Galleries of archival photographs in the Look section visually depict the years before the Second World War and the years of dispossession and internment.
The Landscapes of Injustice pathway also has a robust Teach section for educators, with classroom activities and lesson plans for both elementary and secondary school grades.
An unidentified internment camp (possibly Princeton or Tashme) in 1942. Families lived in close quarters, often with two to three families sharing each shack. Kitchens and washrooms were also shared communal facilities.
Through the Learning Portal, we aim to shed a bit more light on this dark chapter in Canadian and British Columbian history. This is a story we all need to know and reckon with, so that it never happens again.
learning.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/pathways/ landscapes-of-injustice/
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WHAT’S
ON
EVENTS Our Shared Future
WINTER 2022
For a full listing of what’s happening at the museum visit rbcm.ca/calendar
ONLINE RESOURCES iNaturalist
Interested in becoming a community scientist? Check out iNaturalist, a website and app that lets you collaborate with researchers, experts and park visitors around the world. Please tag us @RBCM in your observations! Explore now at inaturalist.org
Learning Portal
The Learning Portal is a dynamic and intuitive online resource designed to engage learners through spectacular audio and video content, fascinating images, and compelling articles. Explore now at rbcm.ca/learning
Dive deep into the stories and science surrounding the orca, apex predator of all oceans. Surface with a new understanding of how orcas and humans are connected.
On now until March 31, 2022
Learn more at rbcm.ca/orcas
VIRTUAL TOUR: Orcas: Our Shared Future
Enjoy an exclusive guided virtual tour of Orcas: Our Shared Future from Royal BC Museum learning program developer Kim Gough and curators Lou-ann Neel, Lorne Hammond and Gavin Hanke. $10 | 30 minutes | rbcm.ca/watch THE POCKET GALLERY
Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum
The BC Black History Awareness Society in partnership with the Royal BC Museum presents Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum, the story of Afro-diasporic “British Columbia” history, past, present and future.
On now until March 31, 2022 Clifford Carl Hall Learn more at rbcm.ca/pocketgallery
BC Black History & Heritage Day
Celebrate Black History Month at the Royal BC Museum with a dynamic display of booths from local organizations, hosted by the BC Black History Awareness Society.
February 12, 2022 | 1:00–4:00 pm 36
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COVER IMAGE Richard Hunt with his totem pole that he originally carved in 1979 and restored in November 2021. The pole was re-raised on December 20, 2021, in Thunderbird Park.
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Experience the magic of IMAX®. Visit the box office for show times and visit the Shop at IMAX Victoria to take the experience home.
See full schedule and get your tickets
imaxvictoria.com
