Bill Reid Foundation

REMARKS BY

THE HONOURABLE IONA CAMPAGNOLO, PC, CM, OBC
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

American Museum of Natural History
Totems to Turquoise: Native Northwest and Southwest Jewellery Arts Exhibition
Vancouver Museum
October 26, 2006

Honourary Aide de Camp: Captain Kerri E. Deane

Director of Ceremonies: Ms. Ludmila Jagiellicz, Vancouver Museum Board President

Distinguished Elders, President of the Bill Reid Foundation Dr. George MacDonald, Guujaaw –President of the Council of the Haida Nation, Curators of the Totems to Turquoise Exhibition Ms. Lois Dubin and Mr. Peter Whitely, Chief Executive Officer of the Vancouver Museum Ms. Nancy Noble, Directors and lovers of the beautiful and the ‘well made object’:

I acknowledge with respect the culture and traditions of the Musqueam, the Squamish, the Tsliel Waututh and the Tsawaassen Peoples of the Coast Salish First Nation in whose traditional territories we are gathered for this exhibition.

Most of us have been very excited about this opportunity to finally view this exhibition, as organized by the American Museum of Natural History and originated in New York two years ago. We begin this evening with a great salute to all those who have assured that Vancouver is included as a site for these works of exquisite and timeless taste and beauty.

As one who was fortunate to grow up in the company of generations of Northern British Columbian coastal artists, I am especially happy as Patron of the Bill Reid Foundation, to be with you to welcome our guests and the works of a number of highly skilled British Columbian and Southwest American First Nations and Aboriginal artists. This presentation has also been facilitated by the Vancouver Museum, CBC Radio and Television, United States PBS - Station KCTS and Tourism Vancouver. In the year 2000 when a cultural exchange was convened between Southwest desert and Northwest coast artists many of those included were surprised to discover that they had great deal in common in their dedication to arts and tradition. Although there were similarities, all were Indigenous: there was also a magnificent diversity derived from inspired interpretations of arts, music, dance, ritual, regalia, institutions, governance, culture and spirituality all of which are deeply rooted in elements of both the natural and the supernatural worlds.

Here in British Columbia, we are at present engaged in a conscious effort to reconcile our ancient and nearer past with our present and future. First Nations and Aboriginal Peoples have inhabited these lands for tens of thousands of years and at long, long last, most of our citizens are coming to appreciate that the story of North America did not begin with the arrival of the first European explorers, but that it is deeply vested in uncounted millennia, during which the first citizens of this continent resided throughout North America. We are all learning a new and inclusive story about ‘who’ we are becoming together although as Canadians and Americans, our societies remain composed of a vast diversity of humanity from all corners of the earth.

When we examine western history, it is surprising how often our analysis is based on remnants of ancient personal adornments. Most of us can quickly recall pictures of winged lions from what is now Syria, or perhaps the great sun-seal of Alexander of Macedon. Most easily recalled of all, must be the furious gods and glorious pharaohs of 6,000 years ago in Egypt with their lapis lazuli collars, cobra headdresses and golden death masks. I was at a site, days ago here in southern coastal British Columbia, where the archaeologists inform us that the great house that once stood on the banks of the Fraser River had its interior house poles changed every two hundred years for six thousand years. So the ancient arts we were taught in school to admire are ‘new’ when compared to First Nations and Aboriginal designs as portrayed in the jewellery of this exhibition.

We all remember a time when indigenous art was a discriminated against and devalued along with all those who produced it. Pieces of great beauty were labelled as crafts and sold for a pittance, or worse, dismissed as items of idolatry! (and subsequently sold for great profits by those who distained it). We owe a debt of gratitude to all those individuals who refused to accept such an artificial separation of artistic excellence that was once a feature in both United States and Canadian society. I would like to especially thank those artists whose works we enjoy here, with all those who have influenced and mentored them through the years, for allowing us to share in the great legacy of indigenous artistry that has survived past ignorance and that now flourishes across both our lands.

Each object of North American Jewellery Arts at this exhibition allows us to experience if only for a moment, a precious link between an ancient natural world that still speaks to us through the ‘the mists of time’ to a world of our own time that confronts us with such challenges and such joys! This exhibition allows us to view two dynamic North American cultures, while at the same time, providing us with an open window on both ancient and modern artistic heritages that comfortably span all concepts of time to give us hope for all our own tomorrows.

Our old friend Bill Reid is probably ‘wryly’ watching over these proceedings tonight, with his passion for beauty and his great skills at creating it. We remember both his ‘exquisitely’ small and his monumentally huge pieces and the legacy that continues to flow from him and from the ancients into the talented hands of a whole new generation of artistically gifted men and women. They can confidently draw on all that has gone before and link it to their own spiritual depths while continuing to create the magic, charisma and the intrinsic beauty of their art that can enchant and educate us at the same time!

The precious and beautiful objects before us come from the hands of Native North American Artists. The jewellery is so distinct that like those who have created it, it could have come from nowhere else on earth BUT from this continent! That is cause for great celebration! As representative of the Crown in this province, I welcome our Southwest visitors with our own distinguished artists as well as all those who seek out this remarkable exhibition.

I pay tribute to each individual artist for their remarkable skill and dedication. On behalf of the people of British Columbia, I offer all who have contributed to the realization of this exceptional exhibition our thanks for this timeless expression of one of the most powerful cultural forces in our world that constituted one of necessary pillars of any truly civilized society.