Dr. Henrion-Dourcy will offer a deeper insight into Tibetan culture as she responds to the exhibition by reflecting on her research on Tibet and its popular culture.

Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images, reimagines Tibet by contrasting historical outsider representations with the ways Tibetans today present and speak about their culture. Developed in collaboration with Tibetan Canadian community members and artists, the exhibition highlights Tibet’s rich cultural heritage while engaging with its contemporary political realities—showcasing Tibet and Tibetans through their own voices and perspectives.

*Registration is now closed. Event fully booked.
Registration is required due to the limited capacity; it does not include admission to the museum.

Bios

Dr. Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Université Laval. She has investigated Tibetan popular culture over the last 30 years, looking at drama, pop music, dance, television, social media, cinema, and autobiographical writing. She seeks to understand cultural and political dynamics running through in the Himalayan region, namely shifts in aesthetic forms and identity occurring among Tibetan societies since the take-over of the People’s Republic of China, both inside Tibet and in the diaspora.

Presented by the Museum of Anthropology, the Himalaya Program and the Department of Asian Studies, the University of British Columbia.

Supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the  Himalaya Program at UBC.

MOA welcomes Akofena Afro-Theatre Society for a vibrant, immersive performance rooted in Anansesem—the Spider Tales storytelling tradition of the Akan peoples of Ghana and, the diasporic communities of the Caribbean and the Americas. Drawing on the legendary trickster Kweku Ananse, this one-of-a-kind experience weaves together theatre, music, dance, and oral narrative to explore how stories travel, transform, and sustain communities across generations and diasporas.

Audiences are invited into a world charged with humour, wisdom, resistance, and creative energy, as artists reinterpret classic Ananse tales through bold contemporary lenses. Centring Black artistry and innovation, this performance honours ancestral knowledge while imagining liberated Black futures.

Bio

Akofena Afro-Theatre Society is a Black-led cultural organization based in British Columbia dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and innovating African and Black storytelling traditions. The society creates theatre that integrates music, dance, oral narrative, and contemporary performance, drawing on African Total Theatre principles to centre Black voices and histories. Akofena collaborates with artists, scholars, and community groups to present works that inspire dialogue, cultural education, and creative empowerment. Recent productions, including King Musu and Through a Film Darkly, reflect the society’s commitment to artist development and to amplifying African diasporic perspectives on Canadian stages.

The February session of Art Club draws inspiration from MOA’s feature exhibition Jaad Kuujus: Everyone Says I Look Like My Mother which focuses on the intersection of tradition and technology in weaving. At this session, learn weaving techniques with one of MOA’s Cultural Interpreters,  Joshua Rolland (Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw).

Art Club at MOA is a new monthly evening series for adult visitors who are curious about using craft as a way to connect—both with the Museum’s collections and exhibitions, and with one another. Part creative workshop, part social gathering, Art Club offers a relaxed space to slow down, experiment, and make meaning through art. See the full schedule.

Art Club sessions are free and located in the Cedar Café at MOA (does not include admission into the museum).

Limited supplies; first come, first served.

For Kids Take Over UBC 2026, discover Mini-MOA! The Museum can feel big even to grown-ups—but for one special day, we’re transforming it into a fun-sized world designed just for kids and families. MOA invites young explorers to dive into hands-on activities, creative play, and immersive cultural experiences. Throughout the day, kids can:

The event is open to children of all ages. Kids under 12 should be accompanied by an adult.

The event is free with museum admission, or with Kids Take Over UBC pre-registration.

UBC Families: Ticket available Jan 19 at 9am
General Public: Tickets available Jan 22 at 9am

This February, we welcome families to the museum to reflect on the bits, bobs, and knickknacks that spark your playfulness, curiosity, and creativity. Learn how to make your own personal pieces of decorative ephemera–create custom buttons, design your own stickers, and practice scrapbooking in a junk journal. All-ages storybooks and colouring sheets will also be available.

Limited supplies; first come, first served.

About Culture Club at MOA

Join MOA on the last Sunday of each month for Culture Club! Drop in and enjoy engaging art-making activities designed for families. This series offers young visitors artful learning opportunities, allowing families to get creative and connect with MOA’s diverse collections and exhibitions. See the full schedule.

Culture Club at MOA is made possible by the generous support of UBC Campus + Community Planning

Dancers of Damelahamid, in partnership with MOA and the Anvil Centre, present the 19^th annual Coastal Dance Festival. The Festival is a celebration of the stories, songs and dances of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast with guest national and international artists.

The Artist Sharing Series is a three-part series where artists will share their processes and practices by way of discourse, movement, song, story, and multimedia. Re-envisioning Relationships in Respect of Lived Practices looks at decolonizing existing relationships with spaces such as MOA’s galleries and collections through song and dance, as well as reshaping the lens through which dance regalia and masks are perceived to better understand these art pieces as lived practice. The discourse will address Indigenizing spaces by asserting ways of knowing that are embedded in Indigenous song and dance, as well as preparing oneself for active witnessing to reshape the lens through which Indigenous arts are acknowledged. 

The Artist Sharing Series is an opportunity to actively learn about Indigenous dance through the vast histories and stories of the Indigenous artists and communities represented at the festival.

Schedule

Wednesday March 4 | 3 pm
Meghann O’Brien

Thursday March 5 | 3 pm
Screening of So Surreal: Behind the Masks, followed by a discussion with Dr. Sarah Hunt

Friday March 6 | 3 pm
Lawra Somby + Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska

The Coastal Dance Festival takes place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the qəyqəyt (Qayqayt), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), q̓ʷainƛ̓ən (Kwantlen), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie) peoples.

The Artist Sharing Series is presented in partnership with Dancers of Damelahamid, Coastal Dance Festival, and the Anvil Centre.

Dancers of Damelahamid, in partnership with MOA and the Anvil Centre, present the 19^th annual Coastal Dance Festival. The Festival is a celebration of the stories, songs and dances of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast with guest national and international artists.

Signature Evening Performances take place within the powerful setting of the museum’s Great Hall, enhanced by special lighting. These ticketed events spotlight the artistic excellence of Indigenous dance, offering a memorable evening of cultural performance.

Friday March 6  | 7:30 pm

Performance program (approx. 75 mins, no intermission) includes dances by:

• Spakwus Slolem
• ‘Yisya’winuxw
• Dancers Of Damelahamid
• Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska / Lawra Somby

Saturday March 7  | 7:30 pm

Performance program (approx. 75 mins, no intermission) includes dances by:

• Coastal Wolf Pack
• Git Hoan Dancers
• Dancers Of Damelahamid
• Cedar Woman

Please note: If tickets are not sold-out in advance, available tickets will go on sale at door at 6 pm on the night of each performance. Doors to the Great Hall will open at 7:15 pm. Seating is risers and first-come, first-served. Photography or videography of the event is not permitted.

The Coastal Dance Festival takes place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the qəyqəyt (Qayqayt), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), q̓ʷainƛ̓ən (Kwantlen), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie) peoples.

The Coastal Dance Festival is presented in partnership with Dancers of Damelahamid, Coastal Dance Festival, and the Anvil Centre.

Dancers of Damelahamid, in partnership with MOA and the Anvil Centre, present the 19^th annual Coastal Dance Festival. The Festival is a celebration of the stories, songs and dances of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast with guest national and international artists.

Drop in to MOA’s Presentation Circle for a screening of So Surreal: Behind the Masks. This feature documentary traces the storied journey of Indigenous masks from the far reaches of Turtle Island (North America) into the hands of European Surrealists, influencing the work of some of the most well-known modern artists and writers of all time including Max Ernst, André Breton and Joan Miró—all while following the dramatic quest to return a mask that was brutally stolen from Canada’s northwest coast over a century ago.

Part caper, part road trip, part spiritual journey, Behind the Mask follows award-winning Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond (Reel Injun) as he travels coast-to-coast and across the Atlantic and back, gradually piecing together this groundbreaking global story of influence and hopeful restitution.

The Coastal Dance Festival takes place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the qəyqəyt (Qayqayt), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), q̓ʷainƛ̓ən (Kwantlen), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie) peoples.

Dancers of Damelahamid, in partnership with MOA and the Anvil Centre, present the 19^th annual Coastal Dance Festival. The Festival is a celebration of the stories, songs and dances of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast with guest national and international artists.

The Festival Stage Performances are a community-oriented celebration showcasing the diversity and richness of Indigenous dance artists. Designed for audiences of all ages, these performances create an inclusive and welcoming space where culture, movement, and storytelling come together to inspire connection, learning, and shared experience.

Saturday March 7  | 1 – 4 pm

Performance program includes dances by:

• ‘Yisya’winuxw
• Dakhká Khwáan Dancers
• Rainbow Creek Dancers
• Git Hayetsk

Sunday March 8 | 1 – 4 pm

Performance program includes dances by:

• Chinook Song Catchers
• Dakhká Khwáan Dancers
• Lax Kxeen Dancers
• Dancers Of Damelahamid

The Coastal Dance Festival takes place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the qəyqəyt (Qayqayt), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), q̓ʷainƛ̓ən (Kwantlen), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie) peoples.

The Coastal Dance Festival is presented in partnership with Dancers of Damelahamid, Coastal Dance Festival, and the Anvil Centre.

Dancers of Damelahamid, in partnership with MOA and the Anvil Centre, present the 19^th annual Coastal Dance Festival.  The Festival is a celebration of the stories, songs and dances of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast with guest national and international artists.

Schedule

March 4 + 5: School Programs (paid programs)
March 4 – 6: Artist Sharing Series (free with museum admission)
March 6 + 7: Signature Performances (ticketed events)
March 7: So Surreal: Behind the Masks film screening (free with museum admission)
March 7 + 8: Festival Stage Performances (free with museum admission)

The Coastal Dance Festival takes place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the qəyqəyt (Qayqayt), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), q̓ʷainƛ̓ən (Kwantlen), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie) peoples.

Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images was developed in collaboration with Tibetan Canadian community members and artists, showcasing Tibet and Tibetans through their own voices and perspectives. The location and status of the Tibetan homeland remain a central issue for Tibetans. Their lived experience in Canada and elsewhere is reshaping Tibetan identity and their self-image, and many are questioning not only their diasporic condition, but also reimagining what homeland means.

Please note: This event takes place at The xʷθəθiqətəm—Place of Many Trees, Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia (6476 NW Marine Drive).

Bios

Dr. Dawa Lokyitsang is a Tibetan American anthropologist and postdoctoral fellow at Leiden University’s International Institute for Asian Studies. Her research examines Tibetan agency as anticolonial response to China’s settler colonialism in Tibet. She co-founded and edits Lhakar Diaries, shaping decolonial scholarship through Tibetan diasporic voices, oral histories, and critical thought.

Dr. Tsering Dolkar Watermeyer is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. Born in Lhasa, she spent her formative years in exile in India before returning to Tibet from where she immigrated to Canada. Her work examines indigenous and diasporic social work practices and structural development.

 Nawang Tsering Gurung is a multidisciplinary consultant, translator, speaker, and cultural advocate from Mustang, Nepal, based in New York City. He works to promote Himalayan arts and culture through initiatives such the oral history project  Voices of the Himalayas: Language, Culture and Belonging in Immigrant New York.

Presented by the Museum of Anthropology, the Himalaya Program and the Department of Asian Studies, the University of British Columbia.

Supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images reimagines Tibet by showing how it has been represented historically by outsiders, and how Tibetans themselves now present and talk about Tibet. This exhibition highlights the importance of Tibet’s rich cultural heritage as well as its current political context. Developed in collaboration with Tibetan Canadian community members and artists, the exhibition showcases Tibet and Tibetans through their own lenses and voices.

Bio

Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura (中村冬日) is a socio-cultural anthropologist and is the curator of Entangled Territories: Tibet through Images. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Studies and Curator, Asia at the Museum of Anthropology, the University of British Columbia. Since visiting Dharamsala in India in 1995 and Tibet and Nepal in the 2010s, the Himalayan region has remained one of her research interests. While a graduate student at the University of Oxford, she worked on the “The Tibet Album: British Photography in Central Tibet 1920–1950” project and the Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947 exhibition (2003) at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

ཧྥུ་ཡུ་བྷི་ནཱ་ཁ་མུ་ར་ནི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་དང་རིག་གཞུང་གི་མི་རྒྱུད་དཔྱད་རིག་ཆེད་མཁས་ཤིག་ཡིན་ལ། དཀའ་རྙོག་ནང་གི་ཡུལ་སྡེ། པར་རིས་ནང་གི་བོད་ཅེས་པའི་གོ་སྒྲིག་པ་རེད། ཁོང་ནི་ཡུ་བྷི་སི་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་གི་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ཞིབ་འཇུག་སྡེ་ཚན་གྱི་ཕྱག་སྦྲེལ་སློབ་དཔོན་དང་མི་རྒྱུད་དཔྱད་རིག་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་ཁང་གི་ཨེ་ཤ་ཡའི་ཁུར་ལེན་མགོ་འདོན་པ་རེད། ༡༩༩༥ ལོར་རྡ་རམ་ས་ལར་གཟིགས་སྐོར་དང་། དེ་རྗེས་ ༢༠༡༠ ལོར་བོད་དང་བལ་ཡུལ་ ནང་གཟིགས་སྐོར་བྱས་པ་ནས་བཟུང་ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡའི་མངའ་ཁུལ་ནི་ཁོང་གི་ཞིབ་འཇུག་ཁྱབ་ཁོངས་གཙོ་བོ་ཞིག་ཡིན་འདུགཁོང་ཉིད་ཨོ་ཁི་སི་ཧྥོར་ཌི་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གྲྭའི་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་སྟབས། ཁོང་གིས་བོད་ཀྱི་པར་དེབ། ༡༩༢༠ ལོ་ནས་༡༩༥༠ལོའོ་བར་གྱི་དབྱིན་ཇིའི་པར་རིས། ཞེས་པའི་ལས་འཆར་སྐོར་ལ་ཕྱག་ལས་གནང་བ་དང་། ལྷ་ས་མཇལ་བ། ༡༩༣༦ ལོ་ནས་༡༩༤༧ལོའི་བར་དབྱིན་ཇིས་པར་དུ་བླངས་པའི་བོད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་སའི་པར་རིས། ཞེས་པ་ ༢༠༠༣ ལོར་ཕི་ཊི་གཙང་བོའི་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་ཁང་དུ་ཚུགས་པའི་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་སྐབས་ཕྱག་ལས་གནང་ཡོད་པ་རེད།

The panel will feature insight into Tibet and its culture as they respond to the exhibition by reflecting on their respective work as a writer and as an anthropologist.

MOA’s feature exhibition, Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images was developed in collaboration with Tibetan Canadian community members and artists. Entangled Territories presents Tibet, its cultures and its communities in a different light. The exhibition also uplifts the efforts of the Tibetan-Canadian community to maintain their culture and history in the face of challenges associated with migration and the loss of their homeland.

Bios

Writer Tsering Yangzom Lama was born and raised in Nepal, and has lived in Toronto, New York City, and Vancouver, where she now resides. Lama holds an MFA in Writing from Columbia University and a BA in Creative Writing and International Relations from the University of British Columbia. Lama’s debut novel We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies (McClelland & Stewart, 2022) won the GLCA New Writers Award as well as the Banff Mountain Book Award for Fiction & Poetry.

Dr. Kabir Mansingh Heimsath is a socio-cultural anthropologist working on urban space, landscape and contemporary art in Tibet and the Himalayan region. He lived and worked between Kathmandu and Lhasa for fifteen years as a researcher, faculty and director for international academic programs. He teaches in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, where he is currently the Director of Asian Studies.

Presented by the Museum of Anthropology, the Himalaya Program and the Department of Asian Studies, the University of British Columbia.

Supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Art Club at MOA is a new monthly evening series for adults who are curious about using craft as a way to connect—both with the Museum’s collections and exhibitions, and with one another. Part creative workshop, part social gathering, Art Club offers a relaxed space to slow down, experiment, and make meaning through art.

Each Art Club is inspired by an ongoing exhibition at MOA, inviting participants to explore its themes through hands-on artistic practice.

Art Club sessions are free and located in the Cedar Café at MOA (does not include admission into the museum).

Limited supplies; first come, first served.

Schedule

Monthly, on select Thursday evenings.

January 15: Trouble in Paradise
February 12: Everyone Says I Look Like My Mother
March: TBA

To mark the start of spring, join us to chase away the dark winter months and celebrate the return of the sun. Create handmade kites with your family to play with outdoors, and design suncatchers to welcome the warmth of the sun into your own home. All-ages storybooks and colouring sheets will also be available.

Limited supplies; first come, first served.

About Culture Club at MOA

Join MOA on the last Sunday of each month for Culture Club! Drop in and enjoy engaging art-making activities designed for families. This series offers young visitors artful learning opportunities, allowing families to get creative and connect with MOA’s diverse collections and exhibitions. See the full schedule.

Culture Club at MOA is made possible by the generous support of UBC Campus + Community Planning

Looking for fun, enriching experiences for the whole family? Join MOA on the last Sunday of each month for Culture Club! This series offers young visitors artful learning opportunities, allowing families to get creative and connect with MOA’s diverse collections and exhibitions.

Culture Club sessions are free with museum admission.

Schedule

Culture Club at MOA takes place on the last Sunday of the month

Upcoming

January 25: Making Memories for the New Year
February 22: Familiar Ephemera
March 29: Sunshine Seekers

Past Events

September 28: Imprints for Truth and Reconciliation
October 26: Lighting Our Path Together
November 30: Harvest Centrepieces

Culture Club at MOA is made possible by the generous support of UBC Campus + Community Planning