| The main entrance is both imposing and welcoming. As it turns out, the architect who designed it used Haida rather than Tsimshian conventions, which was a bit of a faux pas (the two peoples did not always get along, to put it mildly); but the local Tsimshian were so glad to see their museum finally completed that there was no lasting ill feeling. It's a lovely building and contains an admirable collection; but the main attraction (for me) was that the museum signage is all written from the Tsimshian point of view. Signage welcomes the visitor as a guest, to "our" art, "our" house, and "our" history -- not to an exhibit of Those Quaint Brown People (the Exotic Other) owned and operated by Anglos. I thoroughly enjoyed the indigenous-centred perspective, and I think the experience has sensitised me permanently to the "othering" that's done by anglo-centric "ethnographic collections" (i.e. stuff stolen from native people and shown off by colonial powers to themselves and each other, like trophies). |
