In this special tour, Kūn Jáad Dana Simeon will share the process and stories behind Jut-Ke-Nay Hazel Wilson’s fascinating work.

Between 2005 and 2006, Jut-Ke-Nay Hazel Wilson created a powerful, untitled series of 51 “history robes,” which recount specific episodes of Haida history in stunning detail – from a Haida perspective. I Use My Haida Eyes marks the first time that nearly the entire body of work, most of which have never been displayed publicly, is shown together.

These 45-minute Not Your Average Tours invite visitors to engage with I Use My Haida Eyes through the perspectives of artists, family members, and community voices, offering layered insights into the works, their meanings, and the knowledge they continue to carry forward.

Capacity of 25 people per tour; first come, first served.

Bio

Kūn Jáad, whose given name is Dana Simeon, is the daughter of Jut-Ke-Nay (Hazel Wilson) and granddaughter of Grace Bell Wilson DeWitt. She is a descendant of the house of Duugwaa St’Langng7laanaas and the second youngest of her mother’s ten children.

Dana learned the art of creating button blankets from her mother, Jut-Ke-Nay. Through the robes and regalia in this exhibition, she continues to learn from her mother’s teachings—through the placement of buttons, beads, and design details embedded in each piece. Dana describes her mother as “a Knowledge Keeper still,” whose teachings continue to live on through her work.

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 from 11 am to 2 pm.

Upcoming

May 31: Puppet-Palooza

Past Events

September 28: Imprints for Truth and Reconciliation
October 26: Lighting Our Path Together
November 30: Harvest Centrepieces
January 25: Making Memories for the New Year
February 22: Familiar Ephemera
March 29: Sunshine Seekers
April 26: Street Smart Street Art

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

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

On May 30, 1976, the Arthur Erickson-designed Museum of Anthropology at UBC building officially opened to the public. Fifty years on, we’re welcoming everyone to the museum with half-price admission all weekend long, along with some special programming and peeks down memory lane. While you here, enjoy MOA’s two feature exhibitions on now: I Use My Haida Eyes: The History Robes of Jut-ke-Nay–Hazel Wilson and Tupananchiskama: Ancient Andean Cosmovision.

Read about the Museum’s history in our latest MOA story.

Program

Saturday, May 30

50% off admission | 10 am – 5 pm

Screening of short film A Very Special Building and displays of archival material (time capsule, 3D model, brochures from 1976)  | 10 am – 5 pm

Architectural tour with Jay Hiscox, UBC’s Director of Project Services | 11 am

50 Years of MOA tour with Sue Rowley, MOA Director | 1:30 pm

Sunday, May 31 

50% off admission | 10 am – 5 pm

Screening of short film A Very Special Building and displays of archival material (time capsule, 3D model, brochures from 1976)  | 10 am – 5 pm

Culture Club at MOA: Puppet-Palooza | 11 am– 2 pm (drop-in)

Museum tour with MOA Volunteer Associates | 12 pm + 2 pm

We’re looking for your MOA memories! Share your personal memories at the Museum from the past five decades and you will be entered to win a $50 MOA gift card! Childhood field trips, family outings, vacation visits, meaningful moments with the collections, special occasions—we’d love to hear about the memories you’ve made at MOA over the years.

Feature photo: Opening ceremony for the new museum, May 1976. [MOA Archives a041352].

CANCELLED: Please note that the Trouble in Paradise Tours on May 21 + 22 have been cancelled due to illness. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Trouble in Paradise: Climate Change in the Pacific explores the deep relationships between cultural and biological diversity in the context of environmental changes across the Pacific.

Through photographs by Pacific Islanders and selected highlights from MOA’s collections, the tour reflects on how rising seas, changing ecosystems, and resilient communities are reshaping life across the region. Together, participants are invited to consider the complex ways in which cultural knowledge and biodiversity are intertwined, and what these relationships mean to all humanity in a time of global climate change.

The tour is limited to 25 people; first-come, first-served.

Schedule
Thursday May 21 | 12 pm
Friday May 22 | 12 pm

Biodiversity Days is a month-long event in May, to honour the International Day for Biological Diversity (May 22) with a series of engagement opportunities that aim to celebrate and raise awareness of the fragile species, genes and ecosystems that sustain our communities.

Bio

Mitiana Arbon is the Curator of the Pacific and the Ceramics Collection Program Coordinator at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC. His work bridges cultural institutions and Pacific communities, grounded in the values of service, community, and cultural representation. With a background in Pacific Studies and Museum Studies from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Mitiana has long been passionate about creating pathways for Pacific communities within educational and cultural institutions.

May’s Art Club at MOA is a collaboration with UBC Botanical Garden’s Biodiversity Days, a month-long event that celebrates the International Day for Biological Diversity (May 22). MOA’s activities will honour the biodiversity on display in the Museum. To complement a curator tour given earlier in the day, this month’s craft will be a collage based on the installation, Trouble in Paradise: Climate Change in the Pacific.

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.

On the opening weekend of MOA’s latest feature exhibition, take an in-depth tour with MOA Curator ɬəkʷəlqinəm–Jordan Wilson.

I Use My Haida Eyes: The History Robes of Jut-ke-Nay–Hazel Wilson presents a genre-defying body of work by the late Haida artist Jut-ke-Nay–Hazel Wilson (1941–2016). From 2005 to 2006, Wilson created 51 “history robes,” documenting her lived experiences and the histories passed down to her, each scene or event located in a distinctly Haida landscape. Pushing into the realm of history painting, genre painting, and folk art, Wilson’s history robes exemplify the highly innovative ways in which Haida and Indigenous artists continuously expand on inherited forms to speak to a changing world.

Limited capacity; first come, first served.

Schedule

Saturday May 16 | 11 am + 1:30 pm

Bio

ɬəkʷəlqinəm–Jordan Wilson is a member of the Musqueam Indian Band, on whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory MOA is located. He is a PhD candidate in anthropology at New York University and holds a Master of Arts in anthropology and a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous studies, both from the University of British Columbia. Jordan was the co-curator of the MOA exhibitions,  c̓əsnaʔəm, the city before the city (2015) and the ongoing In a Different Light: Reflecting on Northwest Coast Art (2017–). He is co-author of the award-winning MOA Publication, Where the Power Is: Indigenous Perspectives on Northwest Coast Art (Figure 1, 2021).

Enjoy free museum admission (starting at 6 pm) for the opening night of I Use My Haida Eyes: The History Robes of Jut-ke-Nay–Hazel Wilson, an exhibition that presents a genre-defying body of work by the late Haida artist Jut-ke-Nay–Hazel Wilson (1941–2016). From 2005 to 2006, Wilson created 51 “history robes,” documenting her lived experiences and the histories passed down to her, each scene or event located in a distinctly Haida landscape. Pushing into the realm of history painting, genre painting, and folk art, Wilson’s history robes exemplify the highly innovative ways in which Haida and Indigenous artists continuously expand on inherited forms to speak to a changing world.

Celebrate the opening of our new feature exhibition with free museum admission, opening remarks and a performance by the All Haida Women’s Dance Group—who honour Haida cultural teachings, ancestry, and community through songs and dances.

Free museum admission | 6 pm onwards
Program | 7 – 8 pm

No RSVP required.
Light refreshments will be served (6 pm onwards).

Bio

The All Haida Women’s Dance Group
Representing the Haida Nation with Yaahguudaang (respect), the All Haida Women’s Dance Group shares Haida women’s teachings, culture, song, and dance while fostering connection among Haida women and families living in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

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

April’s Art Club at MOA will celebrate Coming Together: The Objects We Meet and the Stories They Carry, a new exhibition by this year’s UBC ANTH 431: Museum Practice and Curatorship class. This month’s craft is mini display box making and decorating, highlighting the unique, personal stories at the heart of this student exhibition.

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.