The University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology (MOA) is among my favorite museums. For Northwest Pacific Coast Indians' history it is unsurpassed. I recently returned there having not been for a few years and enjoyed it as much as ever. Unfortunately the Great Hall was being seismically refitted and therefore its giant totems were not available for viewing. Fortunately I have some photos from previous visits that can fill in.
Although the museum has artifacts and exhibits from cultures on all continents, the focus is on the more local cultures including the eight tribes of the Pacific Northwest Coast ranging from the southern Puget Sound, the Salish Sea and northward through what is now British Columbia and Southeast Alaska.
These indigenous peoples are known for many things but probably none more prominent than their elaborate cultural, totemic and artistic carvings, particularly their totem poles and Bighouse posts that told stories of their cultural, tribal and family histories.
The Bighouse was built with large symbolically carved cedar posts that held up the beams for the roof structures which were also large cedar logs. Extended families shared space in these Bighouses that were also used to host large gatherings for ceremonial purposes such as the Potlatches.
Totem Poles And Bighouse posts
Haida village, 1878 — Wikipedia the objects presented here are but tiny fraction of the wealth of totems, house poles and other carvings in a typical village.
I had the privilege of visiting the remains of similar Haida Village on Haida Gwaii a few years back where I saw the village Chief’s totem shown below. The village is now overtaken with moss and the structures are rather weathered. The village is tended by local tribal members today.
Potlatch and communal feasts
Other figures and ceremonial objects
Totemic masks were and are central to the the Potlatch ceremonies, dances and feasts as they were essential props for telling their cultural histories. Among the numerous masks displayed at the MOA and in the culture, two stick out as particularly iconic as they represent major themes of the Northwest coast culture: the Raven and Wild Woman of the Woods.