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Finding My BC at the British Museum

by Ben Fast

August 8, 2019

Walking into the British Museum’s Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, the first thing you see is the glass ceiling – 3,312 unique panes of glass forming a bubble-like shape over Europe’s largest covered public square.  The second thing I saw when I visited in October of this year surprised me.

A short walk further into the two-acre space, past the information desk, the Reading Room staircase, and alongside the museum’s bookshop and something else looms into view.  Two totem poles tower over the Court Café and the thousands of visitors bustling to and fro.  At 11 metres, the Haida “Kayung pole” seems to scrape the glass ceiling, its dark cedar wood blending into the shadows of its carved surface.   Wood surrounded by stone, steel and sky.

Totem poles in the British Museum’s Great Court. Photo by British Museum.

Growing up as a non-Aboriginal person on BC’s west coast meant I had been exposed to plenty of First Nations art and culture.  Totem poles dot Victoria, feature prominently in the Royal BC Museum, and are mainstays of the postcards and Emily Carr posters tourist buy in the dozens during the summer months.  I’ve always been interested in First Nations artwork and known the significance of the land I live on to the Coast Salish and Esquimalt peoples, but it was never my BC.  I identified with my European heritage, my French Immersion education, and my desire to learn about things ‘out there.’

Travelling to the UK was my chance to explore the world as collected by the British Museum.  Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Ancient China; anything so long as it was ancient.  The remnants from the dawns of civilizations speak loudly and clearly for their respective geographic areas, so tied to history and discovery that their names are known around the world and draw lines of visitors day-in and day-out who come just to say they saw them.

And there, in their midst, were Haida and Nisga’a totem poles.  As I explored deeper into the museum more BC First Nations art and artifacts appeared.  Some of these items dated to pre-contact days, including some of the first pieces brought to England by Captain James Cook.  Other items were newly commissioned pieces of artwork representing a mixing of cultures and the resiliency of the coastal First Nations.  The juxtaposition of 18th Century model cedar canoes and 21st Century copper-plated Toyota Tercel by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas hoods shows a continued legacy of culture and artistic excellence originating from BC’s coast.

Piece from Copper from the Hood series by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. Featured in the Treasures of the World exhibit at the British Museum. Photo by mny.ca.

I saw the Rosetta Stone and the Ming vases, the Sutton Hoo Burial Hoard and the thousands of other final remnants of the perceived long lost cultures from around the world.  I had accomplished what I’d set out to do: to see the wonders of civilization and marvel at the exotic creations of those far-away lands.  But I also saw the totem poles from my far-away land.

The Great Court. Photo by the British Museum.

Returning to the Great Court at the end of my visit, my bag heavier from a shopping spree in the gift shop, my drained camera batteries knocking against each other in my pocket, I walked past the Kayung pole and its smaller Nisga’a companion for the fourth or fifth time that day.  This is how the world sees my province, my “Pacific World,” not as home to dead civilizations but as a thriving cultural and artistic centre with a long – and continuing – First Nations history.  The totems and other pieces may not draw the same crowds as the mummies, but every visitor walks through the Great Court at some point in their visit.

The Haida and the Nisga’a art and stories take pride of place in this greatest collection of the world, Pacific markers at the heart of the British Museum.

Show Bibliography

“Great Court”, About Us, The British Museum.

“Totem Pole”, Online Collection, The British Museum.

“The Northwest Coast”, Explore, The British Museum.

“Copper from the Hood”, Online Collection, The British Museum.

“Kayung totem pole”, Wikipedia.

“Totem poles have their annual clean at the British Museum”, The Guardian. Aug, 03 2009.

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Ben Fast
Ben Fast
Contributor, Royal BC Museum
Ben is an MA student from Royal Roads University exploring the role of museums in the heritage tourism industry. A 4th-generation Vancouver Islander, Ben grew up within the Royal BC Museum and has recently explored Europe’s great museum collections. He has worked at museums in Victoria as well as in Normandy, France, and is thrilled to be the guest editor for the fifth issue of Curious. Ben is also a musician, photographer and writer and looks forward to the next step in his museum career after graduating in 2016.
Contact Ben More by this author

Photo credits:

"Coppers from the Hood" by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. Photo by Chris Fadden.

"Great Court" by the The British Museum.

"Totem Pole" by the The British Museum.

Contact Ben: Twitter, Website

Categorized Art, First Nations, Museums, Victoria

Published December 15, 2014

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Cite “Finding My BC at the British Museum”

Ben Fast, “Finding My BC at the British Museum, ” Curious Quarterly Journal 001 (2014), accessed January 18, 2021. https://curious.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/finding-my-bc-at-the-british-museum/
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