Museum of Anthropology at UBC

Yesterday we went to the recently renovated Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. The museum is filled with Native American artifacts from giant totem poles to baskets, canoes and masks as well as pieces from Japan, Korea, Papua New Guinea....so much to see and read and so little space in my brain to take it all in!
I always feel a little weird taking pictures in museums so there are only a couple here. This is a sculpture by Bill Reid (probably the most famous in the entire collection) called The Raven and the First Men. In Haida culture, the raven is the most powerful of the mythical creatures. This piece depicts the story of the first humans where a curious and mischievious raven finds a clam shell filled with men on Rose Spit beach in Haida Gwaii (aka. Queen Charlotte Islands). He tries to coax these "first men" to come out and join him in his world. He eventually succeeds and these men become the first Haida.

The sculpture sits on a bed of sand from Rose Spit beach. It was carved out of a giant block of laminated yellow cedar.

I couldn't resist this angle of what looks to be a baby's bottom!

The Raven and the First Immigrant by Nicholas Galanin. Meant to be an imperfect reflection (the artist outsourced the carving of the piece to a non-native chainsaw artist) of The Raven and the First Men sculpture. It sits just outside of the Bill Reid rotunda - outside looking in as it were - and was installed 30 years to the day of the unveiling of Reid's sculpture.

After wandering through the museum a bit we headed for lunch at a restaurant called the Sage Bistro on campus where we had a lovely meal while mildly harrassed by a seagull who kept circling and landing closer and closer to our table after our bread. We were a hungry foursome though and he never had a chance at it.

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving through crazy downtown Vancouver traffic before making our way around Stanley Park and heading home. It was a gorgeous day and the drive was scenic and interesting especially when we passed the parking lot of a nude beach (who knew Canadians could be so racy?) and caught an unwanted glimpse of a rather large naked man. No, I did not get a picture although Constance did ask if we could turn around so she could have a look too.