Visibility/Invisibility: Gendered (Re)Orderings
May 7 to August 30, 2024Visibility/Invisibility exhibit 2024

Upstairs Gallery of the Sooke Region Museum.
Admission by donation

How do artifacts, art, or photos make a person be seen, apparent, and noticeable? Or how can objects obscure, hide, or make a person secret?

Visibility/Invisibility features artifacts, art, photos, and stories to illustrate gendered experiences and existence. It delves into how gender is manifested or concealed through various objects and narratives. The exhibit prompts reflection on how these mediums render individuals conspicuous or concealed. Featuring diverse global and local stories, including those from Sooke and across Canada.

The exhibit features one photo and three objects from the museum’s collection, revealing how gender becomes visible or invisible.

Thinking past traditional uses and meanings of the objects allows us to reconsider them with contemporary perspectives. Photograph SRHS#924 (in the poster) shows women competing in the ladies’ nail-driving competition at All Sooke Day in 1961.

It highlights the difference between the “feminine” clothing and the “masculine” event of nail driving. This can make a woman’s identity more visible due to the stark differences between the feminine and masculine.

The other objects include a washboard, a mourning shawl and a lithograph.
The washboard and shawl can hide or obscure women’s identities. A washboard is used for doing laundry, and the household’s woman mainly did that.

While the mourning shawl is a performative object that women wear to conform to certain social expectations, these two items can reduce a woman’s identity to the action or event with which the object is associated.

The lithograph, The Romance (1836) is distinct from the rest. Its ambiguity prompts inquiries into its intended message. Exploring alternative narratives may challenge our initial interpretations. By doing so, individuals can formulate personalized understandings of its significance, relating it to their identities.

Curated by The Feminist Imaginary Research Network (FIRN) in collaboration with The International Association of Women’s Museum (IAWM). Supported by The University of Victoria and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Women of the Sooke Region: From Pioneers to the Modern Wonder Woman

September 23, 2021 – September 29, 2026

We are excited to announce the launch of a virtual, bilingual exhibit titled Women of the Sooke Region: From Pioneers to the Modern Wonder Woman, on September 29. This exhibit explores the challenges and triumphs of the women who helped shape the Sooke region. In addition to celebrating historical figures, the exhibition tells the stories of women who are building the Sooke of the future, through writings, objects, and archival photographs.

SRHS#2218 Women skipping, Lannon Flats, circa 1920

SRHS#2218 Women skipping, Lannon Flats, circa 1920

Based on the physical exhibit “Women of the Sooke Region” that debuted in our upstairs gallery on June 24, 2019, this online project was developed with the support of the Digital Museums Canada investment program. Digital Museums Canada is managed by the Canadian Museum of History, with the financial support of the Government of Canada. The exhibit will be accessible to all, featuring closed captioning for the hearing impaired as well as alternative text for the visually impaired.

“When I first set foot in the Sooke region around 10 years ago, I did not yet know the extent of the history here. In my time with the Sooke Region Museum as Collections Manager, I have heard no shortage of stories of the hardy and inventive women of the region. After working with our wonderful historian Elida Peers and local contributors on this online project, as well as the physical exhibit that debuted back in 2019, I became inspired. This exhibit features classic, as well as untold, stories of the women of the region. We have given our all to produce a bilingual exhibit that is accessible to everyone and shares the lives of Sooke women, past and present, with the world.”
– Collections Manager Montana Stanley

The exhibition will remain on the Community Stories webpage for 5 years, until September 29, 2026.
You can access the exhibition, available in both official languages at:

English: https://www.communitystories.ca/v2/sooke-women_femmes-sooke/

French: https://www.histoiresdecheznous.ca/v2/sooke-women_femmes-sooke/