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• July 1982

• August 17, 1990 - June 30, 1991
• This exhibition will consist of some 50 framed prints of David Neel’s portraits of B.C. Native Chiefs and Elders. Included with the portraits are statements made by the sitters and selected by the artist.

• July 4 - November 2, 1986 (Theatre Gallery)
• This exhibition presented a selection of twelve portrait photographs of Indian elders accompanied by quotes and short biographies.

• March 3 - September 30, 2009 (Lobby)
• This magnificent panel by Coast Salish artist John Marston was accompanied by excerpts from “Killer Whale and Crocodile,” a documentary about John’s journey to Papua New Guinea, where he met and was inspired by Sepik carver Teddy Balangu to carve this work. Curatorial liaison Carol Mayer, Curator, Africa/Pacific.

• July 24 - September 29, 2013
• July 24 – August 31, 2013 (Satellite Gallery)
• The Pacific Islands occupy a place in the Western imagination as a paradise filled with idyllic beaches and lush, tropical landscapes inhabited by dusky maidens. With historical precedents in the accounts of European explorers, these perceptions were later re-invented and popularized by Hollywood films in the 1920s through the ’50s. Contemporary artists from the Pacific Islands frequently play with and invert such perceptions, and their work provides an alternate, more complex vision of the region. Paradise Lost?: Contemporary Works from the Pacific features works by artists from Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Working in video, installation, sculpture, painting, and photography, the artists show the Pacific Islands from an insider’s perspective. Their artworks explore environmental concerns, cultural heritage issues, questions relating to the experience of migration and diaspora, and the intersection of Indigenous belief systems and Western religions. The artists featured are George Nuku, Te Rongo Kirkwood, Greg Semu, Pax Jakupa Jr., Michael Timbin, Tom Deko, Cathy Kata, Shigeyuki Kihara, Ralph Regenvanu, Rosanna Raymond, Moses Jobo, Eric Natuoivi, and David Ambong. Curated by Dr. Carol Mayer (Curator, Africa/Pacific), and organized to coincide with the Pacific Arts Association Symposium at MOA, the exhibition will feature works displayed throughout MOA’s public spaces and at our downtown Satellite Gallery.

Use for: Renewal Project, Partnership of the Peoples

• Museum renovations that took place between 2006 and 2010, funded in large part by a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant named Partnership of Peoples that was awarded to the Museum of Anthropology in 2007. Renovations included a new research wing, new offices, laboratories, a culturally sensitive research room, recording studio, and a new exhibition hall (The Audain Gallery). Other enhancements included MOA's new Multiversity Galleries, the creation of the Reciprocal Research Network (RRN), expansion of the Museum Shop, a new cafe, and courtyard and outdoor events area.

• June 21, 2003 - May 9, 2004
• This major exhibition focused on the Museum’s founding collection. It was shown at MOA for a year, and then travelled for two more years to venues across Canada. Comprising more than 100 objects from Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia, the exhibit was enhanced by historical and contemporary photographs, and documentation amassed first by the collector and one hundred years later by MOA curator Dr. Carol Mayer.

• April 30 – June 1991

• April 20 – July 3, 2011 (Satellite Gallery, 560 Seymour)
• Through singing drums, family heirlooms, a talking basket, and cups of tea, artist Peter Morin sets the idea of the museum on the kitchen table. Peter Morin’s Museum weaves together familiar practices of museum display with a series of performances and an evolving installation to create a space in which to share Tahltan knowledge. As elements of the “museum” change and transform over time, visitors are invited to reflect on history, objects, and places of connection. Peter Morin, of the Tahltan Nation of northern British Columbia, is a Victoria-based performance artist. His ideas about museums and their transformation through indigenous ways of knowing began in his cousin’s cabin, where visits with friends, relatives, and elders offered him a gradual understanding of Tahltan history and means of sharing it with one another. For this exhibition, Peter locates the table—the place of gathering, of Tahltan sovereignty, of his grandmothers’ knowledge—within the space of an urban gallery. There are objects in cases and on the walls: family photos, precious tools, images of Tahltan territory, video, and drums painted with the songs they have sung. Just as visual access to these elements will change through their wrapping and unwrapping over the course of the exhibition, so too will visitors’ relationships to the work as the artist reveals his stories.

• September 25, 1991 - January 26, 1992 (Gallery 10)
• This exhibition of the Dene was also organized by the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, N.W.T. The 25 black and white photographs in the show have been chosen from the Native Press Collection and curated by Dene photographer Dorothy Chocolate.

• November 25, 2014 - April 5, 2015 (The Audain Gallery)
• This exhibition was curated by Katharina Greven (Iwalewa Haus). Nuno Porto is the Curatorial Liaison (MOA). This exhibition was developed by Goethe-Institut, National Museums of Kenya,Iwalewa Haus and the DEVA-Archive. Thanks to our sponsor The Georgia Straight. MOA takes a profound look at Kenya’s popular culture through an illuminating collection of studio photography, from the 1910s to the present day, in the North American premiere of Pigapicha!, November 25, 2014 through April 5, 2015. Including more than180 photographs spanning a century, this deeply moving exhibition showcases portraits that are carefully staged in the studio as well as those quickly taken on the streets of Nairobi. The exhibition documents the customs of modern Kenyan urban culture while supporting an East African history of photography.
• “MOA has always served as a forum for cultivating an understanding and appreciation of the diversity of world arts and cultures traditions,” explains Nuno Porto, Curatorial Liaison for Pigapicha! at MOA. “This Canadian premiere exhibition aligns with MOA’s mission through a comprehensive examination of studio photography in East Africa, incorporating works from all backgrounds – as opposed to similar projects which have focused on Kenya’s booming middle-class.” Curator and professional photographer Katharina Greven, formerly of the Goethe-Institut in Kenya, partnered with more than 30 photography studios in Nairobi and consulted with photographers, studio operators, artists, bloggers, journalists, and cultural scientists to curate this diverse collection of portraits – a subtle balance between the fine arts and the rich, distinct flavors of East African popular culture. “A highly-regarded art form in Nairobi, portrait photography is used to tell stories, share social status, and transform everyday life,” says Curator Katharina Greven. “More than a direct reflection of the individual, these self portraits highlight and amplify desirable features to create an illusion of the idyllic self. In the past 15 years, studio photography has experienced an unfortunate decline in popularity – likely a direct result of cameras, now commonplace on mobile phones. For this reason, Pigapicha! serves to recognize and preserve portrait photography as a significant art form and thus connect us to the significant history of urban Kenya before it is lost.”
• Pigapicha! – which literally translates as “take my picture!” – will include more than 180 images ranging from carefully staged artistic prints, to passport photos, to pictures snapped hastily on the streets of Nairobi. Judiciously arranged into six thematic groups –Uzee na Busara (Age and Wisdom), I and Me, Open Air, Imaginary ‘Safari’, Speaking from Yesterday and Intimacy – each image will offer a unique stance on the attitudes, beliefs, and customs of generations of Nairobi citizens. Born from the cooperative efforts of Iwalewa Haus and the DEVA-Archive, both with the University of Bayreuth, and the Goethe-Institut in Nairobi, this exhibition opening at MOA will mark the first time this powerful collection has been displayed for a North American audience. First presented in 2009 at the Nairobi National Museum, Pigapicha! has since been exhibited in 2011 at Iwalewa Haus in Bayreuth, Germany and in 2013 at the Forum des Arts et de la Culture in Bordeaux, France.

Use for: Kekuli, Quiggly hole

• April 17 - September 2, 1979