Almost 150 years after the Indian Act was first introduced to Canada, the Nuxalk Nation in British Columbia’s Bella Coola region isn’t merely present and surviving, but thriving, and growing. Nuxalk Strong: Dancing Down the Eyelashes of the Sun, opening at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology Feb. 21, is the world’s first-ever dedicated exhibition of the Nuxalk. Combining over 60 pieces, showcasing masks, raven rattles, robes and regalia, the collection spotlights the First Nation’s long journey to reclaiming and rebuilding their traditions and customs, all while highlighting their distinct creativity. The aesthetics will “blow you away,” says the museum’s curator, cultural anthropologist Jennifer Kramer, but there’s far more to the exhibition than just the display of beautiful objects. “This isn’t just about art, this is about the Nuxalk reconnecting to their treasures, recreating, revitalising and rejuvenating the Nuxalk culture and language,” she says. “People are going to be able to see an exhibit where the entire organization of the exhibit is from a Nuxalk way of thinking, about their relationship to their land and water, the spirituality that has been awakened in them.” Kramer, who has worked with the Nuxalk since the 1990s, co-curated the exhibition with the nation’s director of culture and language, Snxakila–Clyde Tallio, combining pieces from the Museum of Anthropology archives with those scattered around the world in other museums, private and family collections. “We’ve borrowed treasures that the Nuxalk have not seen in Bella Coola, in their homelands, for 50 to 100 years, because their elders, their ancestors, had the foresight to place them in museums to secure them until they were able to return to their governance structure, to potlatching.” she says. “The Nuxalk are unique in that they always had this foresight of sharing their culture, because they have always thought about clearing the path for the next generation.” Sprinkled throughout the collection of historical and traditional artefacts are a select few pieces of contemporary art, items that showcase the creativity being sparked among the newest generation of artists, carpenters, and weavers that are learning from the hands of their ancestors. The Nuxalk are still in the midst of returning many of those ceremonies and rites of passage that were suppressed by the Indian Act’s anti-potlatch law, which lasted from 1885 until 1951 and resulted in the imprisonment of community members and the confiscation of hundreds of invaluable ceremonial objects. In the early 2000s, one such cultural event, named the Arriving At Maturity ceremony and designed to celebrate young women who were ready to have children and marry, was reintegrated into the Nuxalk community. After over a hundred years of not being performed, it had long been unknown what the regalia for the ceremony officially looked like. At the time of its resurgence Kramer had visited the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, with Tallio, and viewed a cloak and hat that had been traditionally used during the ceremony, and the pieces, crafted from red cedar bark, dyed black, and decorated with dentalium shells, were photographed and replicated at home. The regalia, newly made but entirely traditional in form, now sits within the exhibition alongside a photograph of a Tallio ancestor taking part in her own ceremony. It is one particular highlight of the exhibit, says Kramer, that represents the tidal wave of reconnection taking place throughout the community. “The Nuxalk people now are being reunited with their treasures, and now these ceremonies and traditions are coming back. Now, more and more young ladies are going through this rite of passage and it gives them strength and pride in being Nuxalk,” she says. The exhibition, says Kramer, has a two-pronged aim. It is designed to be reflected back to the Nuxalk Nation, “so they can see how much work and how much foresight their ancestors had, and how many exciting things are happening,” and at the same time, to the rest of the public, especially non-Indigenous communities, who can now witness firsthand the “strength, endurance, resilience and pride” that is happening within the Nation. “I really see this exhibit as an exciting place for people to see what’s really going on in the Nuxalk Nation right now, it’s a resurgence that deserves to be celebrated,” she says. The exhibition will run at the Museum of Anthropology for almost a year, with it set to close Jan. 5, 2026.
