First Nations. Arts and Cultures of the Pacific Northwest

By presenting their remarkable material and intangible heritage, the exhibition invites you to discover the history and traditions of these societies, notably the potlatch, a system of exchange and alliances that structures relationships between nations, clans, and villages. Deeply disrupted from the 18th century onwards by colonial expansion and globalization, these cultures remain carriers of a vitality and creativity that are still very much alive.

The voice of the masks

The exhibition opens with the world of masks, whose voices carry the stories, beliefs, and identities of the peoples of the North American Northwest Coast and beyond. In many cultures, masks allow for the expression of human consciousness. Through their voice, they convey ancestral values, spiritual convictions, and aspects of their identity. Behind this second face placed upon the first, humans fade away to make room for emotions, the sacred, and political and social considerations.

The first humans

The ecological context of the Northwest Coast of America is characterized by an exceptional wealth of natural environments, whether marine, riverine, or terrestrial. This region is particularly distinguished by its vast forests of giant cedars, its coastal resources, and a particularly rich sea inhabited by a great diversity of marine mammals.

It is in this grandiose natural setting that the ancestors of the current First Nations settled, adapting to this rich natural environment and fostering the emergence, more than a thousand years ago, of the cultural pattern that distinguishes them. This context contributes to the development of an art populated by prodigious beings who explain the origin of the world and give meaning to life, death, and the forces that govern the universe. Often represented in the form of spirit-beings, these subjects are the recognized ancestors of the most prestigious lineages and the primary providers of ancestral privileges and rights.

The animals, motifs, and signs that represent these beings follow precise stylistic rules, shared by many groups. This iconography covers almost all surfaces and is found inscribed on skin as well as on clothing and headdresses, on the walls of houses, on heraldic poles, on the sides of canoes, and on many objects, both ritual and utilitarian.

Encounters and upheavals

Aside from a few stranded Japanese junks, which explain the presence of iron among some groups, the documented arrival of the first foreign individuals in the region hypothetically begins with the incursion of the British privateer and explorer Francis Drake (1579). It continues with the arrival of the Russians (Vitus Bering, 1741), the Spaniards (Juan Pérez, 1774), the English during the third and fateful voyage of Captain James Cook (1778), and the French with Jean-François de La Pérouse aboard the La Boussole and the L'Astrolabe (1786).

The first European presences in the region should not be interpreted as exploration ventures. The latter, which aimed to "discover the world," were largely completed in the previous century. In the region, the Russians, Spaniards, and English participated through the fur trade in the first major process of globalization between Europe, America, and China.

The exhibition path revisits these first colonization attempts and the introduction of the market economy. The inevitable clash of cultures that ensues is evoked, as well as the confrontations, the arrival of Old World diseases that mowed down Indigenous populations, and colonial prohibitions going as far as the ban on the potlatch (1884-1951) and the seizure of goods and other objects of power.

Society and power

The exhibition highlights the various forms of social organization of the First Nations, their chieftaincy systems, as well as their political and ritual practices.

Village groups share knowledge and beliefs and present elaborate social structures organized into exogamous, often matrilineal clans. At the time of first contact with Europeans in the 18th century, this way of life was shared by more than twenty Nations speaking different languages, distributed along approximately 1,800 kilometers of coastline.

From the 19th century onwards, the European presence destabilized the complex balance of these social structures: the British colonization of the region and the creation of Canada (1867) generated numerous social and economic upheavals that shook the First Nations, affected by infectious diseases and the impact of national integration policies.

This section also shows the concerted efforts of the First Nations to maintain a cultural identity despite deep ruptures with ancestral practices, following epidemics, colonial pressures, loss of territory, as well as the effects of the Indian Act of 1876, which consisted of active assimilation policies and the prohibition of the potlatch between 1885 and 1951.

Spiritual world

The social structure and the spiritual world of the First Nations are closely linked. The rights and privileges of chiefs and clans find their origin and legitimacy in the bond between humans and spirits, between the social order and the spiritual universe. The existence of each clan is thus linked to the presence of an ancestral spirit.

In an annual cyclical process, the spiritual world, associated in some groups with winter ceremonies, combines with the secular world, whose main period of activity takes place during the summer productive season, marked by the gathering of plants and the intensive exploitation of herring, salmon, and other species that come to spawn on the coasts and in the rivers. This set forms a global system that takes into account both natural and cultural spaces, the world of spirits, and the forces that govern it all.

A significant part of First Nations art focuses on the expression of the spiritual and the sacred in all its forms. This is evidenced by masks, sculptures, and various objects carrying a "cosmovision" that combines material resources and spiritual convictions.

Art and culture

The exhibition ends with the celebration of First Nations arts and artists, yesterday and today, and points out their multiple contributions to international cultural and intellectual spheres, as evidenced by objects that belonged to André Breton, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Max Ernst. Immediately recognizable, the distinctive style of the region's arts transcends cultural particularisms and language differences among these many nations, and demonstrates that it is a vehicular art, an authentic form of communication.

In addition to "traditional" arts, such as statuary and heraldic poles, works by contemporary artists are presented who either work within the continuity of tradition or move away from it to explore artistic modernity. Among the many artists represented are: Robert Davidson, Charles Edenshaw, Susan Point, Bill Reid, and Michael Yahgulanaas.

A new Haida heraldic pole enters the museum collections

On the occasion of the exhibition and as part of its 20th anniversary, the museum is enriching its collections with the acquisition of an exceptional heraldic pole created by James Hart, artist and chief of the Haida Nation. Carved from a cedar trunk and enhanced with pigments, this monumental work, 6.20 meters high, depicts three sentinels and a female bear sticking out her tongue.

Offered by the Museum's Circle of Friends, the pole will be presented at the entrance to the exhibition before joining the museum hall from February 2027, where it will be installed permanently. From July 22 to 30, 2026, James Hart will be present at the museum to work on his creation, revive its colors, and perform the final touches. Visitors will be able to witness this exceptional work and interact with the artist.