MOA presents To Be Seen, To Be Heard: First Nations in Public Spaces

The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC reopens its doors to the public on June 13, 2024 at 5pm, following an 18-month closure that saw the successful completion of cutting-edge seismic upgrades to its Great Hall, coupled with updated interpretations and new displays of Northwest Coast Indigenous art. As part of the reopening, MOA will present the world premiere exhibition of To Be Seen, To Be Heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965, on display until March 30, 2025, in the Museum’s Audain Gallery. The immersive, multi-media exhibition explores the diverse ways that First Nations people in BC represented themselves as Indigenous in urban public spaces, during the period of potlatch prohibition and other forms of erasure in Canada. Looking back through rich archival material reveals the diverse ways that First Nations worked to be seen and heard striving to have their rights recognized—rights to their lands, their laws and their future.