The natural history section starts with a little intensity, a lot of information, first on pre-history and then on climate change. (Sorry, when I’m in tourist mode, it’s hard to turn on my let’s-learn-about-science mode.) From hard-to-learn, we pass through a series of life-size dioramas of wildlife in various areas of British Columbia. Finally, they are wonderful, really well done. Then it’s on to Ocean Station to board Captain Nemo’s Nautilus to take a look at the undersea world. (It’s not an aquarium, but more of a species identification site.)

Up the escalator, on the third floor, we pass through a display of Tsimshian objects. Well, once they may have been objects, today they present as art. Then the collection passes through the ages of native work…Stone Age technology, a pit house, stoneware, fishing and hunting instruments and techniques. There is a mass of material, but the best part of this collection is that with many of the artefacts there are explanations of how they were created or how they were used. There is an impressive gallery of totems and your journey takes you through the clan house behind them.

Eventually, you will pass through the maze of the aboriginal gallery into the maze of the 20th-century gallery…I kept getting lost. I’m sure that small children and 90-somethings can pass through these exhibits without wandering about, doubling back or consulting the map, but I found it all confusing. Think of that as a challenge…me to you. The 20th-century gallery is social history, not so much dates and documents. Walk through a late-19th century town; look in the shop windows, go upstairs at the Grand Hotel to see a room, step into the captain’s cabin of H.M.S. Discovery, see Chinatown; it’s history for the whole family. From there, we passed through a series of dioramas celebrating British Columbia’s industries: farming, mining, forestry, and fishing. It’s all really well done. You can finish your visit in the gift shop which is much better than average.

Multi-leveled Old Town is just that, reminiscent of old Victoria at the turn of the century, appearing authentic to the smallest detail. From richly carpeted and elegantly furnished living quarters to offices of commission merchants to an apothecary store and Chinatown, it’s interesting to imagine what life was like then.

Past cannery and water wheel, I find myself boarding the HMS Discovery, a mini-reproduction of Captain George Vancouver’s ship. This sturdy oak and hardwood sloop carried 100 sailors and ten 4-pound cannons. Vancouver’s voyage from 1792-1794 accomplished scientific and military goals – surveying the coast and making efforts to befriend (or intimidate?) Spaniards and indigenous peoples.

First Peoples Gallery does not allow photography, so I stash my camera. Beyond the entry, lies a reproduction of a 50-foot kekuli, or pit house. These type of dwellings were reportedly used by interior Salish people for at least 3000 years. These winter houses were covered by roofs of grass, pine needles, cedar bark and earth, but the display kekuli’s partially open framework reveals a cozy interior with mats, baskets and hides for bedding.

Pre-contact/post-contact are the predominating themes of this gallery. Coastal First Nations people lived a fishing culture, also hunting sea mammals and gathering inter-tidal shellfish, seaweed and plants. Salish people were known for their weaving of mountain goat wool. Cedar was extremely useful and sacred to many of the tribes. Cedar bark and roots were used to make baskets, robes, skirts, and blankets. Wooden tools used to shred, crease, strip, sew and weave cedar bark are displayed.

Some larger items exhibited are a canoe and many totem poles, standing in front of a Kwakwaka’wakw big house, reminding me of Thunderbird Park, outside the museum.

A small gallery is entirely devoted to Haida argillite carvings. This dark, dense glossy rock, transitional between slate and shale, has been carved on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) since traditional times, into representations of animals and mythical beings, and ceremonial pipes. With the coming of the Europeans, the carvings began to reflect their influence. Tableware and musical "pipes" (recorders) appeared. The First People’s Gallery ends with an exhibit of the Nisga'a, people of the Nass River of Northwest British Columbia.

Open daily 9AM to 5 PM, closed Christmas and New Years Day.
Rates: Adults - $12.50CD, Seniors, Youth, Students - $8.70CD, Combined museum + IMAX - $21CD/ $16.95CD.

Two tall, massive wooden figures, Huu-ay-aht first man Nutchkoa, and first woman Ho-miniki, stand on either side of the ticket counter, arms outstretched in welcome. They were purchased for the museum in 1911, from Kiix’in village on southwest Vancouver Island. We find that the best rates are combined tickets for museum and IMAX film. (A National Geographic IMAX theater adjoins the museum.) But we opted out of that, wishing to devote our whole day to the museum.

From museum map and brochure, we see that there is one temporary exhibit gallery and four permanent galleries: First Peoples, Modern History, Natural History, and the new Living Land, Living Sea Gallery, spread out on the second and third floors.

Tibet: Mountains, Valleys, Castles and Tents, on loan from Newark Museum from March to October, is our first stop. Photography is not allowed inside the exhibit. We view a fascinating documentary film about early Anglo travelers to Tibet, home of the mysterious Dalai Lama. Objects displayed range from decorations and household items used by nobility, made of precious metals and encrusted with gems, to exquisite textiles, to elaborate tents used by nomads. Tibet remains occupied by China, the Dalai Lama in exile since 1959.

Living Land, Living Sea is simply spectacular and draws the interest of all ages. A lifelike wooly mammoth welcomes us from the past, but before we know it we’re immersed in the disturbing present. It’s all about greenhouse gasses, fossil fuels, and climate change. A happy future for the mountain pine beetle, whose range is continuing to extend, thanks to warming winters. At least until all the pine trees are gone… The if ewe only knew room offers wiser choices for eco-friendly living and a more sustainable future. Wonderful, lifelike forest and coastal dioramas round out the exhibit, with additional detailed wall descriptions of the myriads of life forms living in all the coastal zones.

British Columbia is British are headlines on an enlarged 1900 New Decade wall hanging at the entrance of the Modern History gallery. We learn that the 1846 Oregon Treaty made this so, and that Vancouver Island was declared a colony in 1849, territory of British North America, governed by Hudson Bay Company. Mainland and island gold rushes of the 1860’s saw rapid expansion and competition between those who would have the territory annexed by Canada, versus the U.S. Though the gold rush fizzled, Canada made the better offer. British Columbia became a province in 1871. Queen Victoria named the new province, not after Christopher Columbus, but for American sea captain Robert Gray’s ship, Columbia Rediviva.