Haida art

Weekly Photo Challenge: Heritage

To complement Ben Huberman’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Heritage this week with his photo and description of the moving Reconciliation Pole on the University of British Columbia campus here in Vancouver these photos are also from the UBC Campus and the magnificent Museum of Anthropolgy. I have previously posted about the late great Haida artist Bill Reid’s The Raven and The First Men, which has pride of place in the Museum. Today’s images are a selection from that same visit, which I made on Remembrance Day, 2014.

The following description of the museum is taken from the MOA web site

“The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia is world-renowned for its collections, research, teaching, public programs, and community connections…MOA houses one of the world’s finest collections of Northwest Coast First People’s art in an award-winning building designed by Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. Opened in 1976, the concrete and glass structure is based on the post-and-beam structures of northern Northwest Coast First Nations. MOA’s Great Hall displays huge totem poles, feast dishes, and canoes from the Kwakwaka’wakw, Nisga’a, Gitxsan, Haida, and Coast Salish peoples, while smaller pieces in gold, silver, argillite, wood, and other materials are exhibited elsewhere in the galleries.”

Weekly Photo Challenge: Curve 2

Bill Reid i

This magnificent carving by the late great Haida artist Bill Reid, entitled The Raven and The First Men, can be seen in the Bill Reid Rotunda of the Museum of Anthropology on the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Bill Reid iii

The stunning beauty of this work with all of its majestic curves is truly breathtaking and you can read about its meaning on the Bill Reid Foundation web site.

Bill Reid ii

It seems the perfect photographic way with which to celebrate National Aboriginal Day today.