Canada's Pacific Region profiled in the Canada Hall
July 10, 2003, Gatineau, Quebec — Two new historical exhibits on Canada's Pacific Region opened today at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. West Coast Communities examines the role that natural resources and people of diverse origins played in developing coastal British Columbia, while Pacific Gateway looks at the opening of a modern Canada towards the Asia-Pacific region starting in the 1960s.
"With the addition of these two exhibitions, the story told in the Canada Hall comes full circle," said Dr. Victor Rabinovitch, the Museum's President and CEO. "The Canada Hall opens with the arrival of the Vikings on Canada's Atlantic shores a thousand years ago. It completes its cross-country journey on the Pacific coast in the 1960s, showing how a new wave of people, particularly from Asia, contributed to the vitality of this country."
The resource industries of the West Coast grew in importance in the late nineteenth century. So too did the region's importance as a transportation and immigration hub. Vancouver soon became an important gateway to the Pacific Rim, linking North America with Asia, and later it became a major port of entry for generations of new Canadians.
Visitors to the West Coast Communities exhibit will find themselves on a recreated wharf, surrounded by the buildings, vessels and tools that characterized a typical fishing and salmon-canning community on Canada's Pacific coast. Based upon the British Columbia town of Steveston, the scene gives visitors insight into daily life in many West Coast towns between 1940 and 1970. In addition, the British Columbia communities of Ocean Falls, Prince Rupert and Campbell River are profiled through archival photographs and artifacts that also illustrate the ethnic diversity of the region. People from Japan, China and East India, as well as British and European immigrants, worked together with the local First Peoples to shape these coastal communities.
The Pacific Gateway exhibition reproduces a Vancouver International Airport lounge at the end of the 1960s. The exhibit presents historical artifacts from the early days of ocean travel on Canadian Pacific's Empress ocean liners, and goes up to the advent of the jet age with CP Air memorabilia, including monogrammed china, a flight attendant's uniform, period advertising and archival photographs.
A number of newcomers from the Philippines, representing the new wave of skilled immigrants that began to arrive in the late 1960s, are also profiled in Pacific Gateway. Many were doctors and nurses recruited to fill a shortage of medical personnel. Artifacts, archival photographs and firsthand accounts on video and audiotape provide a snapshot of what it was like to immigrate to Canada during this period. Among the individuals profiled is the Honourable Dr. Rey D. Pagtakhan, Canada's Minister of Veterans Affairs.
Today's official opening included a traditional Nisga'a blessing of the Nishga Girl, a fishing boat featured in the West Coast Communities exhibit. Members of the Nyce family of British Columbia, who donated the boat to the Museum several years ago, pronounced the blessing.
The Canada Hall is a journey across Canada and through time, covering one thousand years of history in a series of life-size installations and artifact collections. The most popular permanent exhibition in the Museum, it presents historical scenes, personalities and issues that have shaped our communities, cultures, political boundaries and social standards, past and present.
Media Information:
Chief, Media Relations
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Tel.: (819) 776-7167
Media Relations Officer
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Tel.: (819) 776-7169
Fax: (819) 776-7187
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