Do Not Touch. A rule so clear, yet so tempting to break. Admit it, we’ve all done it. We’ve all touched an object in a museum when we thought no one was watching. The variety of textures found in MOA’s displays—the sumptuous fabrics, sleek soapstone and jagged carvings—can tease visitors with strong haptic tendencies. For those who are especially tactile, visiting the museum can turn into an exercise of restraint. If you fall into this category, there is hope: MOA is home to a small collection of objects we want you to touch!

“Visitors are faced with a conflict of information,” notes Senior Conservator Heidi Swierenga on the challenges that come with allowing visitors to touch a limited collection of objects. She explains that one of the main issues with this type of accessibility is ensuring that the select pieces are engaged with respectfully. Exposing works to public hands increases the likelihood of damage, but the importance of touch as a learning device is undeniable. “The value that you can get from having people interact with objects outweighs the risk,” Heidi says, adding that touch helps facilitate new understandings of cultural objects. So the next time you are at MOA and feel the urge to reach across a barrier and touch an object that’s off limits, turn to this one instead.

Harbour Canoe, by Qap’u’luq John Marston

Please touch gently and with good thoughts. For canoe maker, John Marston, these words are an important ask of you, our visitors. John’s teachings are that canoes absorb the thoughts of everyone who touches them. When the skipper enters the canoe, those thoughts are transferred to them—hence this request that protects the skipper and the crew.

This canoe is decorated with an orca on the stern and a Thunderbird on the bow. The images tell a history of the people at Cowichan village, and how the Thunderbird came to their assistance. An orca had taken up residence at the mouth of the river, feasting on salmon and preventing them from swimming upstream. The people asked for help. The Thunderbird swooped in, grabbed the orca in its talons, and flew away. Once again the salmon were able to travel upstream to spawn and to feed the people.

“The canoe becomes a part of your family. It needs the care, needs the love that you would give an individual in your family. That’s the nature of dugout canoes.” ~John Marston

A decade after this log washed ashore in Kulleet Bay (near the Chemainus Indian Reserve on Vancouver Island), the Harbour Canoe is now complete and has found its home in MOA’s Great Hall. There, it sits among the carvings and belongings of Northwest Coast First Nations, held with respect and care.

Harbour canoe. [MOA Collections Nbll.353 a-b]. By Qap’u’luq-John Marston (b.1978). Stz’uminus (Coast Salish). 2024. red cedar, yellow cedar. paint, varnish. Gifted to MOA through the generosity of the Salish Weave Foundation and George and Christiane Smyth.