Museum of Anthropology at UBC

I visited this museum 20 years ago and found all other Northwest native art museums wanting after seeing this incredible collection and displays. After 20 years, was it as good as I remembered? Yes, even more so.
Located in a natural setting after a scenic drive through the campus, there are numerous walking trails through the forested area. It was a 15 – 20 minute $ 25 taxi ride from downtown Vancouver, and the front desk called a taxi for us when we were ready to leave. Entrance fee was $ 6 and a much better value than the $ 20 for the downtown art museum.
The totems and outdoor exhibits situated along the shore are photogenic and informative. The interior towering glassed-​in exhibits looking towards the shore are even more monumental than I remembered with towering totem poles and photos of what they looked like in their original setting. The Bill Reid exhibits are also great.
We took a break and had fresh tasty sandwiches on specialty bread in the café along with some hot tea to give our feet a rest. Numerous students were also taking a break in the café.
After our break, we wandered through the multiversity section-​a bit of art, clothing, clubs, drums, canoes, and carvings from every culture around the world-​Solomon Islands to India to Mexico. It is a great overview of human artistic endeavors from around the world. Thousands of artifacts have been cataloged, and a little more info on each item is available on computer screens scattered around the exhibits. Beautiful objects make it a feast for the eyes, but chronology is not a strong point. Best idea is to just enjoy an amazing collection of beautiful things.

An eye popping collection of monumental totem poles and house timbers collected from abandoned traditional first nation villages in BC and southern Alaska. Topped by Bill Reid’s 1959 reconstruction of lodge houses and totem poles on the grounds outside. His monumental «Raven discovers the first men» as well as some of his best gold and silver jewelry pieces are also on display.
They also have a diverse and interesting collection of ethnographically important pieces from many other areas of the world.
But it is the native carvings that truly impress!

The Museum of Anthropology occupies a unique place in Canadian society in that it is one of the few institutions that offers a keen insight into the beauty of the history and culture of the incredibly diverse indigenous peoples.
Of course, as a museum of anthropology it also offers perspective on the ways of life of other cultures and civilizations, but my primary motive in visiting the museum (which is a long schlep away from the core of the city) was specifically to spend time with its permanent exhibition of indigenous anthropology which is an an impressive collection of totem poles, indigenous sculptures, art work and narrative. I was introduced to the work of a luminary like Bill Reid and for that I feel fortunate.
The museum is housed in a beautiful building in a very serene part of the UBC campus. I highly recommend the MOA to those visiting Vancouver.
I wish Toronto had something like this.

When in Seattle several years ago I was struck by all of the Northwest artifacts. I’d not thought Seattle to be exotic in any way and was surprised and a little bit disbelieving of its Northwest connections.
Vancouver features even more Northwestern artifacts but here, outside the USA, it seems more apt. At a distillery on Granville Island I met a pair of First Nation siblings; No such thing happened in Seattle. This is to say that here in VC I’m a believer.
If you want to explore the connection between VC and its First Nation roots and whatever that might mean, get yourself out to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. They have a wild collection of enormous, beautiful, majestic, hand carved totems in their Great Hall and more in their Outdoor Sculpture Complex.
In a category of I-don’t-know-what-to-call-it they also have the «Multiversity Galleries» which is something almost indescribable: thousands (millions?) of objects/​artifacts from the world over, housed behind glass cases or in large pull-​out drawers that are there for you to enjoy. If you like just looking at things humans have created this is your place. The most interested person in the world couldn’t begin to drink in all there is to see in this section of the museum.
While this museum has a vast and enjoyable collection, where it falls short is in the creation of truly engaging, interactive exhibits that rival the best museums out there. This «missing piece» results from the fact that the museum serves primarily as an educational tool for UBC students and this shows up in things like those «Multiversity Galleries». There, I sought information about what I was viewing only to find that it was researchable on a nearby laptop, via a search I couldn’t master. As a result, no actual learning took place, just a lot of beautiful and interesting things to look at. Other exhibits had a similarly academic-​minded focus.
The UBC campus is huge and situated on a beautiful peninsula. If you decide to bike to the museum know that you’ll have to ascend a very long hill before your arrival. Once there though, the beautiful museum is your worthy reward.
If you have a hankering to view top-​notch First Nation artifacts or a desire, in general, to just view a whole sh*tload of man-​made art (almost all of it 3-​D) head here. You might not fully understand what you’re seeing but perhaps that won’t matter; the eye candy alone is satisfying.

Although this is located relatively far from downtown, Museum of Anthropology is a must-​go destination for all Vancouver tourists! You don’t need to interested in anthropology to appreciate the impressive collection of First Nations totem poles in the glass hall or the beautiful museum building in a recreated First Nations setting. Perhaps one of the most impressive museums I have been, this UBC-​affiliated museum is worth the trek to experience!
The biggest attraction is the main glass hall of the First Nations totem poles, some of which dated back at least decades ago. The museum also has a large collection of many pieces from various human civilizations, both modern and ancient, although the main focus is the First Nations collection, which includes many interesting items like headdresses and ritual masks. However, definitely your time to step outside to take the side path to see the recreated village houses and the beautiful museum building. Even the building itself is a beautiful tribute to the First Nation culture!
Depending how detailed you look in the large human civilizations, you can either finish this in an hour or never finish within a day. Go on a Tuesday for much discounted price and extended hours. If you can’t bump into a Tuesday though, you still should not miss seeing this museum! Join in a guided tour to get the most out of this museum exhibits.
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tl;dr version:
1) Impressive museum exhibits with strong focus on the First Nations
2) Worth a trek to go to this must-​see museum wonder
3) Go on Tuesday for discounted admission and extended hour

Come back after a certain time (not sure 4 or 5pm onwards), you don’t have to pay entrance fee! You give donation and that’s it. I’d say, I wouldn’t even pay full price to see this museum AGAIN. It was a mixed up museum, with first nation and then european pottery? a little odd for my taste. i would have appreciated if there’s tons of first nations artifacts and then less of the european or just one kind.

Worth the trek to get to (we had no car).
Very interesting and chilled out.
Join one of the guided tours. They are very interning.

Spectacular. A must go, if you have any interest in northwest history and arts. The Bill Reid rotunda is worth the trip by itself: read about the space while you’re taking in his work. We also enjoyed the outdoor sculpture complex and the MOA building, which is well-​designed and a beautiful context for the museum’s collections. A highlight of our trip to Vancouver.

Booooring. yawns*
Told my friend I’d love to go to the museum of Vancouver because I’ve been there as a kid, but she asked me to come to this one. there wasn’t much to look at.
The only highlight was the big Buddha statue that brought a sense of calm and peace to my hurting head.

Having regretted never coming here while I was a student, I was delighted to find out that my sister who was visiting from Toronto, was interesting in seeing the MOA. Neither of us has been on campus in over five years and we wanted to see all of the changes. As a note to other alumni, you can get 2-​for-​1 admission with your A-​card. It is also open late on Tuesday evenings for a discounted admission price.
I did the typical thing and walked directly into the grand room with the natural light that contains most of the totem poles. The atmosphere is very west coast in that it is casual. There was an interesting information panel that discussed the dilemma of taking the totem poles from their original sites in order to preserve them versus leaving them to break down in the environment.
The Bill Reid rotunda is worth spending some time in. Then, I reached the rooms with all of the drawers… it had been a lazy day so we only arrived at the MOA with about 90 minutes to go until closing. I think if I were to return, I’d spend more time in the inner rooms, examining the contents of the drawers. I didn’t have enough time to make sense of it all. In addition, it started raining, so we did not get to see the outdoors exhibitions at all.
It is out of the way but UBC campus is worth a walk around and there are way more food options these days. One unfortunate thing about this summer is that there is a LOT of construction on campus so it is really ugly near the old SUB and you have to walk a long way to get anywhere due to the fences. Once you reach the core of the campus near the clock tower, it is lovely and it’s a nice walk to the MOA from there.

First off. All UBC students and UBC Staff goes in for Free.
I have been at the Museum of Anthropology many times and I have to say when I was a student (long time ago), I used to work here but that was before they renovated. This place is famous for the artifact that you find on the Canadian twenty dollar bill. Its really worth coming here and you won’t be disappointed. They do change the things on display every couple months.
I find the admission price has gone up significantly in the last 10 years.
I still do recommend a visit

I was really disappointed by this museum.
On the plus side, they have their full collection on display. It’s not fully curated, but everything is nicely laid out in drawers and cases, so you can poke around and find specific items or just browse. They also have computers so you can look up specific artifacts. It’s a really impressive collection and I think it’s great that they make it available to the public; I’ve never seen that before. On the other hand, if you’re not doing some sort of research (academic or personal), it’s just a room full of «stuff.»
The exhibits were odd. Most of them were First Nations related, but then there was a room about European pottery. It would have made more sense if there were more diversity or if everything focused on First Nations.
The exhibits themselves drove me batty. They were very old-​style, stereotypical museum: artifact, explanation card, artifact, explanation card. And the explanations were terrible. They provided no context and referred to events or cultural practices that weren’t referenced anywhere else. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that some areas had an order you were supposed to read, but no indication of such, and the area was not set up in a way that would cause you to naturally walk in one direction or the other. There was a lot of good information, but it was very frustrating to try and find it!
Getting there was a little annoying. There’s no guidance on their site for using public transportation and minimal signage on the campus. Also note that you need a quarter to use the lockers (you can’t take your bags inside).

On day 3 — we took a suggestion from our friend who was local to see what was around here and this came up as something to do and check out during the day. We were pretty rested so we decided, why not take a ride to UBC, check out the campus and check out the MOA here.
Tickets to enter weren’t that expensive and i completely understand why you’d need to pay so if you are all about historical arts and preservation of history, then donate a few extra bucks, i’m sure they wouldn’t mind.
What we saw were… totem poles. Lots of totem poles. Very very interesting totem poles and each with a very interesting story. The only thing is that the oldest totem pole they have is about 200 years old or so — so don’t expect to look at ancient things from older than that. Regardless, the artifacts are amazing! Looking back and seeing someone’s life and the way their people lived was very exciting to me.
I was thoroughly entertained by walking around and reading everything myself — but ended up taking the guided tour for a more detailed and in-​depth look at everything in the museum. There’s an amazing pottery room that houses a ridiculous amount of pottery, clay ware goods and china. There’s an anthropology area that houses TONS of artifacts from peoples around the world and you can view just about everything there.
In terms of sheer volume of things to look at, you could probably spend days looking and reading about each article and be intrigued by everything. I was surprised at the vast amount — which also troubled me — while the totems and the indigenous First Men were the main attraction — everything else in the museum seemed to me, to be thrown together haphazardly in a confusing unorganized fashion — hence the 3 star review.
If i had a lot more time — i would definitely come back and read up on anything that caught my fancy the first time around.

This is a great collection of artifacts from all over the world, with much of the museum dedicated to first nations people from the pacific northwest. The blurbs about many of the artifacts were helpful. I don’t have a lot of context, so I wasn’t sure what I was looking at.
They have a large room of artifacts with drawers upon drawers of items. Seeing that was incredible.
I would go again, but only with some kind of guide book or with a knowledgeable person.

This Museum is located at UBC, which is a little bit inconvenience access to use by bus from DownTown.
I strongly recommend you to visit there, if you have a spare time.
They collect anthropology goods in the world. Especially, native Canadian goods are awesome. The architecture of Museum is also beautiful.

Amazing collection of aboriginal art in a stunning setting. If you’re a CAA or AAA member please show your card and you’ll get a 10% discount for admission.

As having gone to Art School in Vancouver, and with quite a few First Nations artists, Ia am docking a star. The artifacts are wonderful, but how wrong we are to assume that this is all from a far away time. These are living cultures, that Westerners have suppressed and almost destroyed and then put on pedestals.

The Museum of Anthropology is a good Canadian history museum, mainly dealing with the natives. It was fifteen dollars for me and I got my money’s worth. The totem poles and the artifacts of Canadian tribal history were beautiful. Objects such as boats and wooden dogs added to this beauty.
In other rooms, there were all kinds of tribal artifacts from tribes worldwide. There was an impressive, woven motorcycle. Sometimes, the exhibits will seem interesting. You could spend an hour to two and a half hours here.
You see all kinds of totem poles, all kinds of burials and it represents Vancouver wonderfully. The campus is also quite a big and beautiful place in it’s own right.
Overall, visit if you’re in Vancouver. The museum is quite captivating and large. It is a friendly and informative experience. The museum is presented mostly as one large room and so the feeling is very lively.
This anthropology masterpiece is worth a visit.

as a kid, I loved coming here.
If you listen, you can feel the ghosts (they aren’t evil) attached to the artifacts.
Every item is a Legend in itself, carrying within it its own Energy.
This is a Place of Power.
At least, that’s what I thought when I was younger ;)
As an adult, this is merely a place to learn and reflect upon the wisdom and skills of a People who lived in a previous time, and how selfishly we removed their descendants from their rightful place.
Our Charter is an article of hypocrisy, granting those with Citizenship as ‘Canadians’ (rightfully spelled as ‘kanatans’- we can’t even get THAT right) certain Rights that we refuse to grant Status ‘Indians’, refusing them representation on their own lands!

I like big bird and I cannot lie. Seriously, that big bird in the rotunda is possibly one of most awesome sculpture I have ever seen. It is definitely the highlights of this museum. It took me about more than 2 hours to tour everything that this museum has to offer.
I came here to this museum during my trip in Vancouver back in May and I’m really glad that I made it out here. There are lots of history on the totem poles as well as the early history of British Columbia. There are also a section dedicated to the artifacts of other cultures as well.
After touring the inside of the museum, be sure to go outside as well and tour more totem poles. When you follow the path all the way to the back, you get an amazing view of the mountains and ocean.
The admission of this museum is around $ 17 for adults and $ 15 for students (school other than UBC). And if you are UBC students, you get free admission to here so definitely check it out!
If you have the chance to visit Vancouver, I would highly recommend this museum to be on your places to visit for sure.

Nun war ich doch schon mehrfach hier und immer wieder bin ich begeistert.
Sind es die wunderbar geschnitzten modernen Kunstgegenstände oder die Totempfähle vor den nachgebildeten Langhäusern. Vielleicht sind es aber auch die gefühlten 1000 Exponate, die in vielzähligen Schubladen auf Entdeckung warten.
Einmal hatte ich sogar das Glück das Museum zu besuchen und fast alleine herumzustöbern, so dass ich von Angestellten auch mehrfach auf Besonderheiten hingewiesen wurde.
Ein Besuch lohnt sich, wenn man sich für die Kulturgeschichte der Native Americans interessiert. Der Ausblick auf die Bucht von Vancouver ist ebenfalls beeindruckend.
Ich denke ich war nicht zum letzten Mal im MOA, da ich bei jedem Besuch völlig überfordert den Heimweg antrete und bei Weitem nicht alles gesehen habe.

Ein phantastisches Museeum in exponierter Lage, architektonisch eindrucksvoll, bietet es viel Platz um die indianische Kultur in ihren reichen Fasetten innen und auf Außenflächen darszustellen. Ein halber Tag ist hier ganz schnell um. Ein ausgezeichneter Museeumsshop bietet die Möglichkeit zur Mitnahme von wertvollen Erinnerungen (endlich einmal nicht nur Kitsch).
Man stelle sich nur vor, daß die Stadtväter genauso viel Platz und Geld in die noch lebenden und existenten heimischen Indianer investiert hätten, die heute ihr Dasein im Schatten unter einer stark befahrenen Brücke fristen?

Absolut zu empfehlen für alle die an der echten kanadischen Kultur und auch sonst an vielen Kulturen dieser Welt interessiert sind.
Es gibt eine tolle Sammlung von Totems und anderen Artefakten der kanadischen Ureinwohner und eine Menge über die Geschichte Kanadas zu erfahren.
Darüber hinaus verfügt das Museum über eine unfassbar große Sammlung an kulturellen Schätzen aus aller Welt. Wir waren nur 3 Stunden dort, aber eigentlich könnte man sich dort mehrer Tage aufhalten, wenn man sich alles anschauen würde.
Wer danach noch einen kleine Spaziergang machen möchte, kann in Ruhe am Strand entlang spazieren oder sich den Campus der UBC ansehen.
Bei meinem nächsten Besuch in Vancouver werd ich auf jeden Fall noch einem ins MOA gehen.

Ich wähle den Ort Museum für Anthropologie, weil er mir für diese Zusammenfassung am Naheliegendsten scheint.
(Siehe Foto unten)
Die Geschichte der Indianer, der First Nations, der Métis und der Inuit richtig darzustellen, würde den Zweck dieses Qype-​Berichtes sprengen. Im Zusammenhang mit den Olympischen Spielen finde ich es wichtig, etwas tiefer in die wirkliche Geschichte des Landes einzusteigen.
Ich habe mich mit der Geschichte auseinandergesetzt und viele Quellen im Internet angezapft. Den besten kurzgefassten Überblick hat WIKIPEDIA unter

bereit.
Es gibt viele verschiedene Rechte für Indianer verschiedener Stämme. Darum ist es sehr wichtig, sogenannter Statusindianer zu sein. Das ist mehr als ein First Nation, ein Begriff, unter dem versucht wird die Ureinwohner Kanadas in eine Gruppe zu fassen. Insgesamt leben eine knappe Million First Nations in Kanada, davon sind mehr als 700.000 die ursprünglich als Indianer bezeichneten Einwohner und 150.000 Indianer, die keinen Stämmen zuzuordnen sind und somit keine Statusindianer sind. Nicht den First Nations zugeordnet sind die rund 50.000 Inuit, die überwiegend in der Arktis leben und ca. 200.000 sog. Métis, Menschen, die aus Beziehungen zwischen Ureinwohnern und europäischen Einwanderern hervorgegangen sind.
In British Columbia leben viele First Nations aus den ursprünglich über 600 Stämmen in ihren eigenen Reservaten. Sie genießen viele Vorzüge. Unter anderem haben Statusindianer das Recht, Casinos zu betreiben — sowohl in Kanada, als auch in den USA. Wusstet Ihr schon, dass Hard Rock Café, die weltumspannende und höchsterfolgreiche Franchise-​Organisation für Burger-​Restaurants mit Kult-​T-​Shirts seine 2006 den Seminolen, einem Indianerstamm in Florida, gehören?
Statusindianer erhalten Geld aus ihren eigenen Programmen, Sozialhilfe. Viel Land, speziell Naturland, gehört First Nations. Sie leben getrennt von den anderen Kanadiern in Reservaten, haben keine kulturelle Einbindung und sind noch heute an vielen Stellen im juristischen Zwist mit der Regierung. Jeder Stamm hat eigene Verträge mit den Rechtsvorgängern des kanadischen Staates und die Regierung hat bis heute nicht das in der Vergangenheit begangene Unrecht an den an Indianern offiziell zugegeben.

Das Museum ist zur Zeit leider geschlossen, noch bis Mitte Maerz.

Der sehr eigenwillige Museumsbau des Architekten Athur Erikson auf dem Gelände der University of British Columbia birgt die wohl bedeutendste Sammlung indianischer (in Kanada nennt man die Ureinwohner First Nations) Kultur. Diese sind Totempfähle und Masken der Indianer. Weiterhin sind schöné Schnitzereien vorhanden. es werden Führungen angeboten, Übersetzungshilfen (elektronische Führungen) in vielen Sprachen. Interessant sind die Totempfähle im Außenbereich. Videos über die First Nations werden selbstverständlich auch angeboten. Im Museumsbereich sind besonders toll die aus Holz hergestellten Figuren und aus Speckschein geschnittene Dinge. Da gibt es auch die Möglichkeit, selbst eine solche Figur aus Speckstein zu schneiden (schwer).
Das Museum ist alles in allem sehenswert, weil es Dinge aus der Zeit der Ureinwohner zeigt.
Ein Besuch ist lohnenswert, ich empfehle aber, viel Zeit mitzubringen