Royal BC Museum navigates major reset after building cancellation

The tourists who flock to Victoria every summer are often fascinated by the historic objects created by First Nations in British Columbia: the totem poles, the house fronts and the masks that are the jewels of the province’s museum collections. Visiting the Royal BC Museum, they may feel let down – the showstopping Totem Hall was closed in 2022 – or delighted by an exhibit about Indigenous languages and the Jonathan Hunt House, the recently restored longhouse of a Kwakwaka’wakw chief.

“Many tourists come to the Royal BC Museum to see Indigenous culture,” museum director Tracey Drake said in a recent interview. “There has been some disappointment. We have tried to counter that.”