Sankofa, which runs from November 4, 2021 to March 27, 2022, features works by both African and Black Canadian artists, in conversation with objects in MOA’s permanent collection. This reflective exhibition celebrates different ways of understanding the world through the lenses of African and Black communities, the wealth of their cultural and art practices, and their inspiring legacy.

These one-hour exhibition tours will give visitors the opportunity to engage with the themes and ideas of the exhibition through diverse perspectives.

Capacity of 15 people per tour; first come, first served.

Tour dates (3 – 4pm)

CANCELLED: Saturday, January 22

CANCELLED: Saturday, January 29 – with Njamba Koffi, author of Refuge-e: The Journey Much Desired; BA student, International Relations and Affairs, UBC

CANCELLED: Saturday, February 5 – with Olumoroti Soji-George, director of Black Arts Centre + MA visual arts studies and history, SFU

CANCELLED: Saturday February 19

Saturday February 26 – with Stephanie Allen, co-founder of Hogan’s Alley Society

Saturday, March 5 – with Anthonia Ogundele, UBC Board of Governors + founder of Hogan’s Alley Land Trust

Saturday, March 12 – with Nya Lewis, exhibition guest co-curator; founder + director of BlackArt Gastown

These tours will be led by a range of speakers, including:

• – Nuno Porto (MOA Curator, Africa + South America; exhibition co-curator)
• – Nya Lewis (exhibition guest co-curator; founder + director of BlackArt Gastown)
• – Titilope Salami (exhibition guest co-curator; artist; PhD candidate, UBC)
• – Damara Jacobs-Petersen (MOA Curator of Indigenous Programming)
• – Oluwasayo Olowo-Ake (curator of Oruko Mi Ni: Reinterpreting Ibeji; MA candidate, Art History, Visual Art + Theory, UBC)
• – Njamba Koffi (author of Refuge-e: The Journey Much Desired; BA student, International Relations and Affairs, UBC)
• – Stephanie Allen (co-founder of Hogan’s Alley Society)
• – Olumoroti Soji-George (director of Black Arts Centre + MA, visual arts studies and history, SFU)
• – And others

Community members or organizations who would like to participate as guest speakers of one of these exhibition tours with MOA Curator Nuno Porto are welcome to contact Nadin Hassan, MOA Public Programs Assistant at programs@moa.ubc.ca.

Featuring historical and contemporary works by African and Black Canadian artists and objects in MOA’s collection, Sankofa: African Routes, Canadian Roots shares stories, histories and projects of African and Black affirmation. In particular, it draws connections to historical contributions and the growing vitality of Black Canadians in Vancouver.

For tweens and teens. School groups welcome, best suited for Grades 6-10.

Registration required.

In partnership with the Vancouver Public Library

Willy White will be weaving a Chilkat dance apron and leggings which were commissioned by MOA to accompany the Chilkat robe he completed in 2004 as another commission—MOA Collections 2641/1—Sala gamiilga gaax ganou: The Raven Dances with Frogs. The dance apron and leggings will be created not only for museum display and education, but also for activation through community access and ceremonial use.

We welcome you to visit Willy while he is working at MOA, during regular museum hours. This is a special and rare opportunity to witness the artist at work, and to join him in conversation about his artistic practice.

Schedule

Tuesday, February 8 – Saturday, February 12  | 12 – 5 pm
Tuesday, February 15 – Sunday, February 20  | 12 – 5 pm

William (Willy) White lives in northern British Columbia. His Tsimshian name is Lii Am Laxuu and he is a member of the Raven Clan of the Git-wil-gyoots, which translates as “the people of the seaweed.” A weaver for twenty-three years, he has also been a dedicated teacher for more than a decade, with a particular interest in supporting the growing interest in Tsimshian weaving and the return of weaving as a cultural and personal statement at ceremonies. He has travelled throughout the Tsimshian Nation and smaller villages, promoting and teaching traditional weaving. He is proud to be a Chilkat weaver and honoured to be a carrier of the traditional knowledge among the people of the Tsimshian Nation.

Watch this video from the Royal BC Museum to learn more about the weaver and his process.

It’s a day of museum fun for the whole family at MOA, where kids and youth can take part and take the lead! Listen to children’s stories about African and Black Canadian heritage, follow a youth-led tour of the exhibition Sankofa: African Routes, Canadian Roots, participate in a hands-on conservation lab, and chat with our artist-in-residence, Willy White, as he demonstrates Chilkat weaving. Discover fun activities throughout the Museum all afternoon!

The event is open to youth of all ages. Kids under 12 should be accompanied by an adult. The event is free with museum admission.
Plus, there’s many more family activities at Kids Take Over UBC, happening all across the UBC campus.

Program Schedule at MOA

Kids Conservation Lab | 11 am – 2 pm
Learning Lab
A drop-in activity where all ages can practice the care and repair of materials found in the museum. There will be demonstrations on mending for paper, mini ceramic repair and the polishing of metals like pennies. Come have fun with this hands-on activity and then take your projects home.

Sankofa Tours | 1 – 2 pm
Audain Gallery
Tours by members of African Descent Society’s Heritage Keepers: special 20-minute tours that explores the exhibition Sankofa: African Routes, Canadian Roots from a individual African descent and youth perspectives.

Storytelling | 11 – 11:30 am + 12 – 12:30 pm
Presentation Circle
Listen to Njamba Koffi (author of Refuge-e: The Journey Much Desired), read a selection of illustrated children’s books exploring West African and Black Canadian heritage.

Chilkat Weaving | 11 am – 3 pm
Textile Research Room
Watch our artist-in-residence, Willy White, weave a Chilkat dance apron and matching leggings as part of his artist residency at MOA. Learn more about his techniques, Chilkat weaving, and Tsimshian ceremonial practices.

Bios

Njamba “John Michael” Koffi, author of Refuge-e: The Journey Much Desired and BA student of International Relations and Affairs at UBC, is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo and has lived and travelled in multiple countries as a refugee. He appreciates multiculturalism, is highly passionate about youth empowerment, and advocates for recognition and resolution of minority issues, especially issues affecting refugee youth.

Mauray Katherine Toutloff is an objects conservator at MOA. She has an M.A.C. from Queen’s University and a B.Sc. from the University of Regina. Mauray is focused on collaborative research for preventative and treatment-oriented conservation strategies. She lectures on conservation for the Department of Anthropology, is the regional representative for the Canadian Association of Conservation, and is an ardent supporter of disseminating conservation education and training to students, volunteers, community members and the public.

William (Willy) White is an internationally recognized Chilkat weaver and a carrier of the traditional knowledge among the people of the Tsimshian Nation. In 1996, he publicly wove the first Tsimshian Raven’s Tail robe made since European contact, at the Museum of Northern British Columbia. For the last ten years, he has focused on reviving ancient weaving techniques used in producing Chilkat, as well as reviving its use in ceremonies. Willy is committed to teaching other Tsimshian weavers, including his current apprentice, Pearl Innis.

The African Descent Society BC (ADSBC) is a non-profit organization that promotes African Descent arts, culture and education in Vancouver, the province of British Columbia, and beyond. ADSBC organizes the annual African Descent Festival as well as other live music events, music workshops, and weekly shows for emerging African Descent artists. ADSBC is also a leading organizer of Black History Month programs, Heritage and Black Strathcona walking tours, and other cultural activities in BC in collaboration with schools, community organizations and colleges.

MOA has partnered with the African Descent Society BC to support education around African descent history, culture and arts. Take their heritage walking tour of Yaletown, Gastown, Downtown Eastside and Strathcona, tracing through the history of the Black Canadian community in Vancouver. Discover the areas where people of African descent settled and developed vibrant communities, and learn more about the tragic removal of these neighbourhoods due to the construction of the Georgia Street Viaducts.

To register, please e-mail Nadin Hassan, Public Programs Assistant at programs@moa.ubc.ca.

Tour admission by cash donation.

Meet at 207 Union Street, Vancouver at 10 am for the tour. Read about the tour stops and more details here.

The African Descent Society BC (ADSBC) is a registered not-profit organization based in Vancouver, BC, established in 2014, with a mission to promote arts and culture of African Descent through research, live music, dance and performance; and to activate African Descent heritage in BC. ADSBC organizes the annual African Descent Festival as well as other live music events, music workshops, and shows for emerging African Descent artists. ADSBC is also a leading organizer of Black History Month programs, Heritage and Black Strathcona walking tours, and other cultural activities in BC in collaboration with schools, community organizations and colleges.

Celebrate Black talent and culture in an inclusive event for members of the UBC community. Enjoy a night of performances from various artists from the UBC Black Student Union, set in MOA’s Haida House, against a stunning backdrop of Northwest Coast art and architecture. Time permitting, the event will end with a general open mic night. Bring friends and find new ones, and let the soaring talents, picturesque views and scent of cedar inhabit your senses.

This evening is presented in partnership with Exposure UBC, UBC Arts and Culture District, and the UBC Black Student Union.

The UBC Black Student Union is a Black-centered organization dedicated to furthering the representation, education, and empowerment of UBC’s Black community. They are committed to fostering Black culture and Black leaders at UBC through advocacy, outreach opportunities, social, political, and academic-focused events and initiatives. This includes creating a safe space where the successes of Black individuals can be celebrated.

Sign up here to perform in the open mic:

Proof of vaccination
As per provincial orders, all special event participants 12 and older will be required to provide proof of vaccination (eg. BC Vaccine Card). MOA reserves the right to deny entry or participation to anyone who doesn’t comply with MOA’s stated policies, procedures and visitor code of conduct.

Presented in conjunction with MOA’s new feature exhibition Sankofa: African Routes, Canadian Roots (on display until March 27, 2022), this mini film festival features a series of short documentaries about the African diaspora in the Americas.

Through these films, engage with the hidden histories of Canadian urban planning projects and their impacts on historic Black Canadian communities, and celebrate Africa’s rich cultural heritage that has survived through centuries.

Remember Africville (at 11:05 am)
Shelagh Mackenzie| 1991 | 35 min | English | Canada

This film, produced by the National Film Board, explores the history of Africville, a small Black settlement within the city limits of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Former residents, their descendants, and some urban planners speak out about the decision to demolish the settlement in the 1960s, in the name of urban renewal and integration.

Hogan’s Alley (at 11:45 am)
Cornelia Wyngaarden and Andrea Fatona | 1994 | 32 min | Canada | English

This short documentary tells the unrecorded history of Vancouver’s Black community, specifically Hogan’s Alley, between 1930 and the late 1960s, examining the lives of three Black women.

Secret Vancouver: Return to Hogan’s Alley (at 12:20 pm)
Melinda Friedman| 2016 | 16 min | English | Canada

This short documentary features rich archival materials as well as interviews with academics and community members to tell the story of how this former hotbed of jazz was destroyed due to gentrification and urban renewal.

They Are We (at 1:30 pm)
Emma Christopher| 2014 | 1 h 17 min | English | Cuba

They Are We shows the reunion of a family separated by the Transatlantic slave trade, joined by their ancestral songs and dances. The film digs deeper into the Afro-Cuban songs and dances brought by an ancestor during the slave trade to Perico, Cuba, tracing back the origins to a remote village in Sierra Leone. Christopher’s film is a colorful celebration of Afro-Cuban culture and the cultural heritage that has survived through centuries.

Proof of vaccination

As per provincial orders, all special event participants 12 and older will be required to provide proof of vaccination (eg. BC Vaccine Card). MOA reserves the right to deny entry or participation to anyone who doesn’t comply with MOA’s stated policies, procedures and visitor code of conduct.

*Please note: this event has been cancelled due to logistical and programming challenges due to COVID.

The UBC Africa Awareness Initiative is a student-run organization committed to improving discourse surrounding and including Africa at the University of British Columbia. Their aim is to encourage critical discussions about the African continent and its diaspora by presenting academic forums with talks by world-class African scholars, writers, artists and activists.

Proof of vaccination

As per provincial orders, all special event participants 12 and older will be required to provide proof of full vaccination (eg. BC Vaccine Card). MOA reserves the right to deny entry or participation to anyone who doesn’t comply with MOA’s stated policies, procedures and visitor code of conduct.

This event kicks off with a talk from multi-disciplinary artist and founder of Black Arts Vancouver, Chase Keetley, who created the multimedia altar installation We Lost People: Diasporic Departure (2021) alongside Berlynn Beam in MOA’s feature exhibition, Sankofa: African Routes, Canadian Roots. Keetley will discuss his work and the ideas and process behind his artistic practice.

This will be followed by poetry readings and a book signing from artist, poet and award-winning educator, Chantal Gibson, whose installation, Souvenir (2017) is also on display in Sankofa. Gibson will be reading from her two recent books of poetry, How She Read and with/holding (available for purchase at the MOA Shop). Gibson will be available for book signings.

Bios

 Chase Keetley is a multi-disciplinary African-Canadian artist whose work is based in the Black Experience. He investigates the mimicry and use of Blackness, such as the appropriation of cultural practices and iconography rooted in Pan-African Ethnography. Keetley’s practice takes a close look at the identities, desires, and the investments of non-Black people and how they live vicariously through Black Culture without actively dismantling the issues that coincide within its existence. Keetley’s work continually confronts forms of oppositional representations put on Black Bodies.

Chantal Gibson is an award-winning writer-artist-educator. Working in the overlap between literary and visual art, her work confronts colonialism head on, imagining the BIPOC voices silenced in the spaces and omissions left by cultural and institutional erasure. Her visual art has been exhibited in galleries and museums across Canada and the US.

Her book of poetry How She Read (Caitlin Press, 2019), which explores the representation of Black women in Canadian history, art, and literature, won the 2020 Pat Lawther Memorial Award and 2020 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Her follow-up collection, with/holding (Caitlin Press, 2021) brings a critical lens to the representation and reproduction of Blackness across digital media.

Proof of vaccination

As per provincial orders, all special event participants 12 and older will be required to provide proof of full vaccination (eg. BC Vaccine Card). MOA reserves the right to deny entry or participation to anyone who doesn’t comply with MOA’s stated policies, procedures and visitor code of conduct.

In the beautifully illustrated work of the art of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Mischief Making: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Art, and the Seriousness of Play (UBC Press, 2021) author Nicola Levell disproves any notion that play is frivolous. Deploying mischievous tactics, Yahgulanaas uses his art to shine a spotlight on serious topics and reveals his deep understanding of the seriousness of play. His refiguring of lines and stories opens up a realm in which the disruption of what’s expected allows different ways of experiencing, knowing and seeing the world to emerge.

Bodies of Enchantment: Puppets from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas (Figure 1 Publishing, 2021) features over 150 photographs among chapters by ten contributors. Edited by Nicola Levell, Bodies of Enchantment offers a behind-the-scenes look at her award-winning 2019 MOA exhibition, Shadows, Strings and Other Things: The Enchanting Theatre of Puppets, and describes the museum’s role as an imaginarium. The contributors highlight still-vital traditional puppetry practices, as well as modern adaptations of the form: exquisite leather shadow puppets depict ancient Indian epics in modern-day Indonesia; Taiwan’s long-running Pili glove puppetry show thrives in the digital era; and Indigenous filmmaker Amanda Strong uses stop-motion animation to create entrancing new realms.

At this special double book launch, internationally recognized authors, artists and curators Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Nicola Levell, Sutrisno Hartana and Jill Baird will be in attendance to celebrate and to profile their writings, art practice and MOA’s collections. Opening remarks will be followed by a book signing.

Free; museum admission not required to attend.
Copies of the books will be available for purchase in the MOA Shop.

Bios

Nicola Levell is an award-winning curator, writer and associate professor of museum and visual anthropology at UBC.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is an internationally celebrated visual artist, author and professional speaker.

Sutrisno Hartana is a scholar and a master of Javanese gamelan music and wayang kulit shadow puppetry.

Jill Baird is MOA’s Curator of Education known for her innovative programs and exhibition-making.