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Ben Williams Leeson was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, UK, in 1866 and emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1886 with his parents, Anna and Jobe L. Leeson. He began taking photographs in the Cariboo in 1887 and moved to Quatsino Sound in about 1894 where he and his father managed the salmon and clam cannery located on the opposite shore, as well as a store (J. L. Leeson & Son) selling clothes and provisions. Ben Leeson is particularly noted for his portraits of First Nations people and was fascinated by "flat-headed" Kwakiutl women.

According to the British Columbia Archives, Ben William Leeson married Evelyn May Hawkins on February 15, 1912 in Quatsino. In 1939 Leeson retired and moved to Vancouver. He died March 15, 1948.

Ben Houstie is a Heiltsuk artist born in Bella Bella, BC (Waglisla) in 1960. Ben’s works include: original paintings, limited edition prints, carved cedar rattles, and paddles. He has worked with Cheryl Hall, Robert Hall, David Gladstone, and Beau Dick. In 1988, Ben worked under Bill Reid painting several drums of Bill’s designs and 20 paddles for the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. Ben also painted several reconstructed artworks in 2000 for the Museum of Anthropology’s "The Transforming Image" exhibition. He is known for producing small original paintings and miniature wood masks. As a child, Ben watched master carver, Mungo Martin, working on the world’s largest totem pole, in Alert Bay, B.C. He is a survivor of the St Michael’s residential school in Alert Bay and his art serves as a form of healing and cultural connection. His great grandfather is Daniel Houstie and his son is Christopher Houstie. From: https://sa-cinn.com/ben-houstie-artcards-prints/

Beatrice ‘Beatty’ Pilon worked in Chengtu, Szechwan, China in the late 1940s and made a month-long trip into Tibet by horseback in 1948. Some objects Pilon purchased while in Tibet were later donated to the Museum of Anthropology.

Reverend Basil Shakespeare Sutherland Hartley was ordained by the BC Conference of the United Church of Canada in 1939. Accompanied by his wife Edythe, Hartley worked in communities throughout BC, including Skidegate (1939-1940), Kitimaat (1941-1943), Windermere Valley (1944-1945), Greenwood (1946-1947), Nakusp (1948-1950). In 1951 he retired to Vancouver, and later lived in Nanaimo (1953), Castor, Alberta (1945-1955), and Rockey Mountain House (1956-1957). He died in 1973. Edythe Hartley later remarried, becoming Edythe McClure.

Audrey Patricia MacKay Shane was born on August 27, 1922 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received a diploma in Interior Design from the University of Manitoba in 1942 and worked for the Department of Architecture and Fine Arts at the University for the next three years. In the period between 1962 and 1970, she served in voluntary roles such as secretary of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and treasurer of the Manitoba Archaeological Society. In 1974, Shane received her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia (UBC). A year later, she was hired as Archivist/Librarian at the Museum of Anthropology, a position she held until she was appointed Curator of Documentation in 1979. As Archivist/Librarian, Shane was responsible for the documentation of the Museum’s collections for inclusion in the National Inventory of Canada as well as for the cataloguing of the collections.

Shane completed her M.A. in Anthropology in UBC in 1978. Her primary interest was in the art and material culture of the northern Northwest Coast, China, Japan and the Insular Pacific before the 20th century. As the Curator of Documentation, Shane’s responsibilities included ensuring the accurate permanent catalogue records were created and maintained for the Museum’s collections, interpreting the Museum’s collections to the public and students through exhibits, publications, university and community teaching, and representing the museum on a local and international level. She taught a series of laboratory sessions in the Anthropology course, Museum Principles and Methods, a course offered by UBC’s Department of Anthropology and also conducted lectures and seminars for the Museum’s volunteers. Shane has written various scholarly articles and presented many papers in numerous conferences. Her published articles include “Sensibilities: Unsuspected Multicultural Harmonies” which appeared in the March/April 1983 issue of Canadian Collector, “Power in Their Hands: the Gitsontk,” which was published in The Tsimshian: Images of the Past Views for the Present and “Networking: the Canadian Experience,” a paper published for the Western Museum Conference in 1983. Shane has also curated a number of exhibitions and served on the Acquisitions and Collections Committees within the Museum. In addition, she was active in committees formed by professional associations such as the British Columbia Museum Association Committee on Legal and Ethical Questions. She also assumed the role of Signing Expert Examiner in Ethnography for the Canadian Cultural Property Export and Import Board. Shane retired from her position at the Museum in 1987.

Audrey Hawthorn was born November 25, 1917 in California. She was raised in New York City, and obtained a BA in 1939 at New College of Columbia University. Her thesis entitled "A curriculum for community studies in Habersham County Georgia", was completed under the supervision of Dr. Morris R. Mitchell, Professor, Community Planning. During 1939-1941 Audrey Hawthorn finished a thesis entitled "Socio Economic Appeals in Mass and Class Media", and was granted an M.A. degree. She also attended Yale Graduate School in Anthropology from 1940-1941. In 1941, Audrey and her husband, Dr. Harry Hawthorn, were given a joint fellowship in Latin American studies for coordinating the office of American Affairs and the Institute of Human Relations, Yale. Audrey Hawthorn was also a psychiatric case worker with the Family Services Agency in Yonkers, New York, in 1946 and 1947. Audrey came to the University of British Columbia in 1947 with her husband, who was appointed UBC's first anthropologist. She was appointed to the position of Honourary Curator. Audrey Hawthorn, a specialist in primitive art, was granted a regular appointment as curator in 1956. She was the first person, and the University of British Columbia the first institution in Canada, to begin the formal training of professional museum staff. From 1948 students from the Department of Anthropology voluntarily completed most of the work in the museum. By 1955, non-credit courses were offered to these students in order that they could actively pursue museum careers. In 1963, a credit course, Anthropology 331, Primitive Art, was added to the curriculum and in 1965 Anthropology 43 1, Museum Principles and Methods. For a number of years, these two courses were the only ones of their nature in Canada. Students were able to learn a great deal about the day-to-day operation of a museum by working with staff to complete a wide variety of activities. In recognition of her teaching responsibilities, Audrey Hawthorn was appointed Assistant Professor in 1966 and Associate Professor in 1971. Her most important publications are a study of Indian Arts and Crafts, commissioned by the Royal Commission on Arts, Letters and Sciences in 1951; "People of the Potlatch, the Art of the Kwakiutl Indians" and "A Labour of Love" (a history of the Museum of Anthropology). Due to deteriorating health, Audrey discontinued her museum duties in 1977. She formally retired in 1985. Audrey Hawthorn was awarded an honourary LL.D from the University of Brandon in May of 1984; received the Order of Canada in April of 1986; and an Honourary LL.D from UBC in 1986. Audrey Hawthorn died on November 18, 2000.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is the result of a call by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke in January 1989 for Asian-Pacific economies to consult on how they could effectively cooperate and increase trade and investment flows in the Asia-Pacific. Australia’s motive was to create an Asia-Pacific economic identity, of which it would be an integral part. Japan endorsed the Australian proposal and became the second driving force in the creation of APEC. The first APEC meeting of trade and foreign ministers took place in Canberra in November of 1989 (with twelve attendees: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the U.S.).
A summit or Leaders’ Meeting has become an annual event since President Clinton invited leaders to Blake Island in 1993. The first APEC Leaders’ Meeting was held in Seattle in November 1993. This first Leaders’ Meeting of economies represented half the world’s population and 56% of its GNP. A year later all APEC leaders met at Bogor, Indonesia, and at that meeting the Leaders resolved to move to free trade and investment by 2010 for industrialized member economies, and by 2020 for developing member economies. The 1995 meetings were in Osaka, Japan where the Osaka Action Agenda was agreed to, setting out a template for future APEC work towards common goals. The Philippines convened the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in 1996 at Subic Bay. The Leaders’ Meeting was held in Vancouver, Canada in 1997 at the Museum of Anthropology on the University of British Columbia campus.
The following 21 countries are members of APEC as of 2022: Australia, Brunei, Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.
APEC has three standing committees, one steering committee, and a few other forums that report to the Senior Officials Meeting. The three committees are the Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI), the Economic Committee (EC), the Budget and Management Committee (BMC). The Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE) has 14 working groups: Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group (ATCWG), Anti-Corruption and Transparency Experts’ Working Group (ACWG)
Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG), Energy Working Group (EWG), Experts Group on Illegal Logging and Associated Trade (EGILAT), Health Working Group (HWG), Human Resource Development Working Group (HRDWG), Oceans and Fisheries Working Group (OFWG), Policy Partnership on Science, Technology and Innovation (PPSTI), Policy Partnership for Women and the Economy (PPWE), Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group (SMEWG), Telecommunications and Information Working Group (TELWG), Tourism Working Group (TWG), and Transportation Working Group (TPTWG). The CTI deals with trade and investment liberalization and business facilitation concerns. The role of the EC continues to evolve. It is primarily responsible for providing the Senior Officials Meeting with information and analysis on broad, crosscutting issues which are not easily handled by one of the working groups.

Art Thompson was born in 1948 in the village of Whyac and lived in Nitinaht on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Hi father was Ditidaht and his mother was Quwutsun'. His father and grandfather were carvers and canoe builders, and his grandmother was an accomplished basketmaker. Art worked as a logger, a boat builder, and attended commercial art school before travelling across North America. He has been instrumental in defining the innovative direction of contemporary West Coast design, along with Joe David, Ron Hamilton, and others. As well as silk-screen prints, he produced wood carvings and engraved jewelry.

April Liu is currently a Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow for Asia at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, BC. She completed her PhD in art history at the University of British Columbia in 2012, with a specialization in Chinese art history of the late imperial to contemporary period.

Since 2011, Liu has worked as an instructor in the Critical and Cultural Studies Department at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, teaching courses on Asian art, visual culture, and global modernities. Her current research interests include Chinese print culture, contemporary Asian art, and the visualization of heritage and memory amongst Asian diasporas.

Anthony Shelton served as the Director of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) from August 2004 through June 2021. A researcher, curator, teacher and administrator, his interests include Latin American, Iberian and African visual cultures, Surrealism, the history of collecting, and critical museology. Before coming to UBC he held curatorial positions at the British Museum, The Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery and Museum’s Brighton, the Horniman Museum, London, and academic appointments at the University of Sussex, University College, London and the University of Coimbra. He has been the Portuguese representative to ASEMUS (Asia-Europe Museums Network), and sat on the international advisory boards for the construction and development of the Humboldt Forum, Berlin and the Asian Cultural Complex, Gwangju.

Dr. Shelton has published extensively in the areas of visual culture, critical museology, history of collecting and various aspects of Mexican cultural history. His works include Art, Anthropology, and Aesthetics (with J. Coote eds. 19, 1992); Museums and Changing Perspectives of Culture (1995); Fetishism: Visualizing Power and Desire (1995); Collectors: Individuals and Institutions (2001); Collectors: Expressions of Self and Others (2001).

Dr. Shelton curated two acclaimed exhibitions at MOA: Luminescence: The Silver of Peru and Heaven, Hell and Somewhere In Between: Portuguese Popular Art. He also launched an award-winning publication series with Figure 1 Publishing, authoring several of its titles, including the recently published Under Different Moons: African Art in Conversation and Theatrum Mundi: Masks and Masquerades in Mexico and the Andes. He helped to expand MOA’s African, European and Latin American collections. He also developed strong relationships with consulates, created an external advisory board, and secured funding for postdoctoral curatorial fellows.

Dr. Shelton received Doctorate and Masters degrees from Oxford University, and a Bachelors degree from the University of Hull.

Anthony Lawrence Carter, the late author, publisher and photo-journalist, was born on October 22, 1920 in Somerset, England. He and his family emigrated to Wallaceburg, Saskatchewan in 1926 and later moved to Goodsoil, Saskatchewan . The Carter family leased an acre on Lac des Isles where they farmed for a living. In 1938, Carter purchased his first camera and learned how to develop his own pictures using an old developer and instructions from a Kodak booklet. In 1939, he applied to the Royal Canadian Air Force and was accepted a year later. He continued with the RCAF and the British Institute of Sciences and Engineering until he was discharged in 1945. Following his time in the Air Force, Carter held his first public exhibit in Ontario of images he had taken across Canada. He also spent time at the First Nations village in Fort Rupert where he began building a collection of his own photographs of the community. In 1948, Carter began working for MacKenzie Barge & Derrick as a shipwright where he took his first commercial photograph and began selling prints widely. In 1951, he decided to go into child photography, which he did exclusively for three years. Carter was also an active photo-journalist in the marine and logging fields, which led to his contributions to journals such as Western Fisheries, Canadian Truck Logger and The British Motor Journal.

While photography was Carter’s main source of income during the 1950s, he also spent his summers fishing to make a living. Around 1960, Carter purchased a 60 foot fish packer, the Wamega. He was based in Klemtu at this time and collected the history and legends of the Kynoc and Kit-is-tu people, which appeared in his first book. Carter’s publications, which include This is Haida (1969), Somewhere Between (1968), From History's Locker (1968), Wamega (1960s), and Abundant Rivers (1972), were directly inspired by First Nations people and their culture. He also wrote a book called Snowshoeing for Everyone (1975). Carter was a poet and accompanied his photos with his own text. Additionally, he undertook all aspects of designing his books for publication. Carter also worked with the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan to develop its Northwest Coast collection, and was a consultant to the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, B.C.

Anthony A. Kingscote was a photographer.

Anne Melita Williams was a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology.

Assistant Director and Department Head (Administration & Outreach), Museum of Anthropology

Ann is a retired, settler information professional who has a Master’s degree from UBC in Anthropology (1985) and an MLIS from the UBC School of Information (2008). From 2010-2018, Ann oversaw the Audrey & Harry Hawthorn Library & Archives (AHHLA) at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) and managed digital projects and services for MOA. The Oral History & Language Lab is part of AHHLA and has led MOA’s involvement with the Indigitization Program. Being part of the Indigitization Program Steering Committee was a highlight of Ann's career, affording her the opportunity to work with and for Indigenous communities.

Alver Tait is a Nisga’a (Gitlaxdamix) carver and hereditary Chief of the Eagle-Beaver clan. Tait carved many poles raised in the Nass Valley and assisted with the carving of two red cedar canoes in 1980, with his brother Norman Tait who taught him to carve. He also worked with Norman on the Beaver Pole that was raised at the Field Museum in Chicago. In recognition of his craftsmanship, Tait was selected by the City of Vancouver to carve a Nisga’a Eagle bowl, which was later presented to Queen Elizabeth II. He was also asked by the British Museum to restore a pole carved in the 1860s, which was originally a monument to his great-great grandfather, Luuya’as, carrying the Eagle-Beaver crest image. In 2006, he received the Order of British Columbia.

Allison Cronin holds an BA and MA in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia. She worked at MOA from 1989 to 2005 on the following positions:

• Museum Assistant 1989
• Curatorial Assistant from 1989 to 1991
• Assistant Collections Manager from 1990 to 1996
• Manager of Loans and Projects from 1996 to 2003
• Loans Manager from 2004 to 2005