Dorothy Grant, OC, is an internationally renowned fashion designer and traditional Haida artist. She is a member of the Raven Clan of Kaigani Haida, and learned to sew and weave traditional Haida garments and ceremonial regalia from her maternal grandmother. In the early '80s, she was the first Indigenous designer to combine traditional Haida artwork with contemporary fashion.
Doreen Jensen, also known as Hahl Yee, was born on May 13 1933 in Kispiox, just north of Hazelton, British Columbia. The name Hahl Yee belongs to the Killerwhale family crest from the House of Geel of the Fireweed Clan. Jensen attended the Gitanmaax School of Northwest Indian Design where she learned to carve under the guidance of Tony and Henry Hunt. Doreen Jensen was also known for her work promoting aboriginal artwork, teaching Gitxsan language classes, and helping to revitalize traditional practices. She was a respected cultural leader and historian. In 1983, she curated an exhibit at MOA entitled “Robes of Power” which emphasized the strength of traditional design and craftsmanship. The exhibited highlighted the importance of regalia to First Nation ceremonies and the key role that women played in producing robes. Jensen went on to teach Gitxsan language classes at UBC and traditional art practices such as drum making, cedar baskets and bead work at Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver. In 1993, Doreen Jensen was acknowledged by the Vancouver YMCA and was rewarded with the “Woman of Distinction” award. She also received the Golden Eagle Feather from the Professional Native Women’s Association and has been honoured with a name given to her by James Sewid and family at one of their potlatches. In 2008, she was also nominated for the BC Governor General Award in recognition of her passion for culture and tradition. Jensen passed away in 2009 leaving behind a lifetime of contribution to a revitalizing First Nation culture, language and artwork.
Bob Kingsmill is a professional potter and ceramics instructor who lives and works near Vernon, BC. Born in Vancouver, Kingsmill trained in ceramics under Muriel Guest in Winnipeg before returning to British Columbia and establishing his own pottery studio in Kelowna in 1967. Kingsmill later moved to Bowen Island, where he compiled his first book A Catalogue of British Columbia Potters (published 1978). In 1979, Kingsmill opened a studio on Granville Island in Vancouver, which he continues to operate alongside his studio near his current home in Vernon.
Bob Kingsmill produces a wide variety of stoneware and raku-fired ceramics, including wall murals, masks, and functional pottery. Besides his artistic endeavours, Kingsmill has led many pottery workshops throughout BC and has taught at Capilano College, Malaspina College, and for Emily Carr College of Art and Design’s Outreach Program.
Charles Gladstone was a Haida carver, of Skidegate, B.C. He was Bill Reid's grandfather.
Charles S. Brant was born in Portland, Oregon in 1919. A life-long anthropologist, Brant began his academic career at Reed College where he obtained a B.A. 1941. In 1943, Brant completed his M.A. requirements at Yale University, where he was also University Scholar from 1941-1943. From 1943-1946 Brant served in the U.S. Army as part of the Medical Administration in India and China. With the support of Wenner-Gren and Fulbright awards, Brant undertook pre-doctoral research in the United States and Burma before completing his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1951.
In the early years of his career, Brant taught at University of Michigan (1947-1948), Colgate University (1951-1952), University of California (1952-1953), and Sarah Lawrence College (1954-1956). Brant was also resident anthropologist at Albert Einstein College from 1956-1957. In 1957, Brant joined Portland State University as Assistant Professor. Brant moved to Canada in 1961 to take the position of Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta, and obtained Canadian citizenship six years later. Brant became head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta in 1963, and also directed the University’s Boreal Institute for Northern Studies from 1964-1967. In 1970, Brant left Alberta for Montreal to join the faculty at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) as professor. Brant spent the last 12 years of his career there, retiring from teaching in 1982.
Brant is best known for his work on the Kiowa Apache through his book Jim Whitewolf: The Life of a Kiowa Apache Indian, originally published in 1969. In addition to his work on North American Native peoples and cultures, Brant had research interests in social organization and change in India and China; social change in Arctic regions (especially as it applied to Canada and Greenland); and in the problems of developing countries. During his career, Brant completed fieldwork in Burma, Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, and in Native American communities in California and Oklahoma.
Brant and his wife Jane were both photographers and life-long social activists. They had two sons. After his retirement in 1982, Brant moved to Gabriola Island, British Columbia. Brant passed away in 1991 at age 71 in Nanaimo, British Columbia.
In 1974 and 1975, Dan Jorgensen traveled in Papua New Guinea’s Sanduan Province where he studied the initiation cult and mythology of the Telefolmin people. In 1981 Dan Jorgensen received his PhD in anthropology from UBC, writing a thesis about his travels and studies in Papua New Guinea. Since 1977 he has been a faculty member of University of Western Ontario in the Anthropology department. He specializes in the anthropology of religion
Diane Elizabeth Barwick (née MacEachern) was a renowned political and historical anthropologist. Born in Canada in 1936, she remained a Canadian citizen until 1960, at which time she moved to Australia. Leading up to her departure from Canada, she studied at UBC in the school of Anthropology, from which she obtained her BA in 1959. She worked under Audrey Hawthorn at the Museum of Anthropology for many years leading up to her graduation. Before leaving for Australia, Barwick worked for nine months with Wilson Duff at the Provincial Museum of British Columbia. Her exposure to northwest coast First Nations communities would directly influence her later studies and work at the Australian National University. In pursuit of a Ph.D. there, she researched kin networks among Aboriginal Victorians. She was an active member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies and was a co-founder of the Aboriginal History journal.
Gillian Darling Kovanic began an undergraduate degree in anthropology in 1968 at Simon Fraser University. In August of that year, Kovanic left Simon Fraser University and spent most of 1969 – 1970 hitchhiking and travelling around the world, including stops in the United States, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, India, South East Asia and Japan. Upon her return to Canada in 1970, Kovanic transferred to the University of British Columbia where she began a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Anthropology, focusing on South Asia, and minors in Museology and Art History. She completed this degree in 1975.
Kovanic began her Master’s degree at the University of British Columbia in South Asian Anthropology in 1975, finishing in 1979. During this period she completed a year of field work (1976 – 1977) in the Hindi Kush (Kafiristan and Nuristan, Afghanistan) for her Master’s thesis titled, “Merit Feasting Amongst the Kalash of Northern Pakistan.” During this time in Afghanistan and Pakistan she collected ethnographic materials, which now reside with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).
In 1979, Kovanic returned to India as a Shastri Indo-Canadian scholar studying the Oriya language in Orissa state. She returned to Canada in 1981 and from 1983 – 1985 completed a diploma in Media Arts and Sciences in the Media Resources Department at Capilano College. Upon completion of this diploma, Kovanic joined Northern Lights Entertainment as a film producer and director. She worked as an independent film maker from 1985 – 1997 and joined the National Film Board of Canada from 1997 – 2001, before returning to her work as an independent film maker with her company Tamarin Productions Inc.
Kovanic’s film career has been widely successful, earning accolades at film festivals around the world for films such as Island of Whales (1990), Battle for the Trees (1993) Through a Blue Lens (2000) and Suspino: A Cry for Roma (2003). Her films have been nominated for many awards, including Gemini Awards, one of which she won for Island of Whales in 1992, the Golden Sheaf Awards and the British Columbia Leo Awards. On many of these projects Kovanic works as director, writer, producer and location sound editor.
From 1985-1987, Gordon and Louanne Houston lived with their young son Peter in the village of Bella Bella (Waglisla) on Campbell Island in British Columbia. Gordon was the village dentist and Louanne was employed as a nurse at W.R. Large Memorial Hospital during this period.
John Williams was a Reverend in the Anglican Church of England, and was commissioned as a missionary in 1816 by the London Missionary Society. In 1917, Williams and his wife Mary Chawner voyaged first to Australia and from there to the Society Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Their first missionary post was established on the island of Raiatea. Williams and his wife later engaged in mission trips to the Polynesian islands with other London Missionary Society representatives. The couple was also involved in mission work in the Cook Islands, specifically the islands of Aitutaki and Rarotonga. In 1834 the Williamses returned to Britain. During this time, John William oversaw the printing of the New Testament which he had translated into the Rarotongan language. While in London Williams published a work titled “Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands” that helped expand awareness in England of the South Seas Islands region. Throughout their careers, the Williamses were well known for the success of their mission work
In 1837, John Williams returned to the Polynesian islands on the mission ship Camden, commanded by Captain Robert Clark Morgan. In 1839, John Williams and fellow missionary James Harris were engaging in missionary work on the New Hebrides [Republic of Vanuatu] islands. On November 20, 1839, Williams and fellow missionary James Harris landed on the island of Erromango. As they approached the shore they were attacked and killed by the people living on the island, and ritualistically cannibalized. Unbeknownst to the missionaries, a few days prior, traders had landed on the island of Erromango and the people erroneously thought Harris and Williams were returning traders. In 1839, a memorial stone in Williams’ honor was erected on the island of Rarotonga.
Ken Kuramoto was contracted by the Museum of Anthropology in 1980 to produce the film Celebration of the Raven. At this time, Kuramoto was director of K.K Enterprises.
Marie-Claire Delahaye worked as a nurse in Barotseland in western Zambia from 1956 – 1960 and again from 1962 – 1965. In that time she spent one year at Mwandi, one year at Nalolo and two and a half at Senanga. Upon her return in 1962 she lived for one year at Lealui before returning to Senanga until 1965. Delahaye spoke Silozi, the language of the Lozi people, exclusively while living in Zambia. She worked in missionary hospitals and dispensaries.
Richard Cotton was stationed in Terrace, BC in the 1960s.
Robert Keziere was born in Vancouver in 1937. He has been chief photographer at the Vancouver Art Gallery as well as a freelance art photographer, and his work has appeared in a number of books.
Dr. Stephen Inglis was born in 1949. He has a BA and a PhD (1984) in Anthropology from UBC. He received an MA in Museology and Indian Art from Calcutta University. Dr. Inglis was a guest curator for the MOA exhibit “Calendar Prints: Popular Art of South India” which was displayed at the Museum from September 1983 to January 1985. He is currently the Director General of Research and Collections at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC). Dr. Inglis specializes in artists and their communities, particularly in South Asia.
Thomas Laurie and Mildred Laurie were a married couple who managed the B.C. Packers general store in Alert Bay for many years. Their daughters Leslie and Cathie attended the first local integrated school there in the 1950s, and their son Tom was born in Alert Bay in 1962. After leaving Alert Bay in 1964 the family moved to Powell River, where Thomas and Mildred ran the Columbia Store, and then to Ocean Falls, where they managed the mill store. The Lauries later relocated to Kitimat and then to Prince George, where they ran a motel for 22 years.
Thomas Laurie and Mildred Laurie were a married couple who managed the B.C. Packers general store in Alert Bay for many years. Their daughters Leslie and Cathie attended the first local integrated school there in the 1950s, and their son Tom was born in Alert Bay in 1962. After leaving Alert Bay in 1964 the family moved to Powell River, where Thomas and Mildred ran the Columbia Store, and then to Ocean Falls, where they managed the mill store. The Lauries later relocated to Kitimat and then to Prince George, where they ran a motel for 22 years.
Elizabeth Lominska Johnson was born in Ossining, New York in 1941. In 1963, she received a B.A. in Psychology from Bucknell University. After receiving this degree she travelled in Europe for a year. In 1965 she married Graham Johnson. In 1967, she received a M.A. in Anthropology from Cornell University. Subsequently Johnson moved to Hong Kong where she lived from 1968 to 1971. Johnson continued to study at Cornell and in 1976 she received a Ph.D. in Anthropology upon completion of her dissertation, "Households and Lineages in an Urban Chinese Village," which is a study of the effects of rapid urbanization upon kinship groups in a two-lineage Hakka village.
In 1974 and 1975 Elizabeth Lominska Johnson was engaged as the "Coordinator, China Resources Project," at the University of British Columbia (UBC). In this position she acted as a liaison between local schools and researchers focusing on China at UBC. In 1977, she was employed as a museum cataloguer on a part-time basis both by MacMillan Bloedel, and by the Museum of Anthropology (MOA). From 1978 to 1979, she was employed as the Public Programmes Coordinator by the Vancouver Museum and Planetarium Association, where she developed, implemented and supervised new courses, social events, and lectures. Since March 1979, she has been an employee of the Museum of Anthropology. Until August 1986, she was Curator of Collections. In this position Johnson was responsible for the intellectual and administrative control of artifacts in the museum’s collection through registration, conservation, loan procedures; development of policy and procedures, the planning a new textile storage system, providing collections information to the public and the creation of publications relating to the collection.
Since August of 1986, she held the position of Curator of Ethnology. Several of her responsibilities continued to the new position, including curatorial activities and development of policies and procedures. New responsibilities included: teaching the course "Museum Principles and Methods" in Anthropology as well as occasional courses in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the maintenance of collections documentation, maintenance and development of museum archives, managing public access to archives and supervising archival workers, appraising artifacts where required for accessioning or income tax receipts, maintaining financial records on the collections curating and coordinating exhibits, as well as taking on curatorial initiatives to develop and promote the East Asian collections in specific and the world-wide textile collection in general. In 1988, the responsibility for the MOA Archives was transferred to Johnson from Audrey Shane. Subsequently, in 1999 responsibility for the archives was transferred to the newly hired museum archivist.
Johnson’s work however was not restricted to the tasks required by her various positions at the museum. Johnson has also published works suitable for academic, museum and public audiences. These publications include exhibit catalogues, articles and book reviews. She has been active in community and professional associations, including: the Canadian Museums Association; the British Columbia Museums Association; the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch; the Association for Asian Studies; the Archives Association of British Columbia; the Textile Society of Hong Kong; and the Canadian Asian Studies Association. She has regularly attended and participated in conferences, where she has presented papers on such diverse topics as Chinese ethnology, textile conservation, museum studies, archives, the development of curatorial partnerships, visible storage, textiles, repatriation, and Cantonese opera. Apart from her involvement with conferences Johnson has also been an active participant in the academic and museum communities at an international level. Beginning in 1998, she was a grant application assessor for the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong. In the same year she also took on work as an external examiner for the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as taking on a position as an advisor to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Johnson was also highly involved in the local Vancouver community. From 1983 to 1995 she was a member of the Chinatown Historic Area Planning Committee in Vancouver. Beginning in 1998, she was also a member of the Vancouver Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives Committee. In the fall of 2006 Johnson officially retired, though she continues to maintain her relationship with the Museum of Anthropology in a research capacity.