Vancouver - Part 4 - UBC


The excellent Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia was worth the long bus ride from our West Vancouver digs. Its focus is on traditional Northwest Coast First Nations art, although a diverse collection of world art and culture is also presented. In keeping with our international theme for the day we also visited the peaceful Nitobe Memorial Garden, a traditional Japanese garden that is also on the UBC campus.

Carved bentwood box, probably used for memorial purposes. Amazingly, the cedar wood is steamed and bent – not cut – at the corners, such that the sides are all made from one piece of wood.



Sections of a totem. They had to cut it into pieces to fit it in the museum.



The Great Hall, designed by Arthur Erickson, echoes the post and beam architecture of the First Nations People.


The Raven and the First Men sculpture by famed Haida artist Bill Reid. It sits on a repurposed gun battery from WWII that was on the site.



Detail from The Raven and the First Men



Native masks



Nitobe Memorial Garden


















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