Although National Indigenous History Month has ended, this does not mean we stop celebrating and sharing Indigenous history. We want to showcase changes to the museum’s interior gallery exhibits, specifically the basket displays.
The museum has two basket displays, one wide and one tall. As you enter the interior space, the displays are in the first corner on your left-hand side. Our wide basket display showcases 21 belongings from various Indigenous communities across Vancouver Island. In the top left-hand corner are two masks carved by paaʔčiidʔatx̣ (Pacheedaht) Hereditary Chief Queesto Charlie Jones in 1979. Located at the front of the display are two unfinished basket bottoms you can pick up to look closely at. One of them was made by Ida Planes of the T’Sou-ke First Nation.
Stay tuned for an exciting refresh of the tall basketry display, located beside the wide display. This update will shine a spotlight on local T’Sou-ke makers Susan “Grandma Sue” Johnson, Agnes George, and Ida “Grandma Ida” Planes. Their baskets, each carrying the legacies of their lives, will provide a unique opportunity for family stories and memories to be retold.
Grandma Sue’s story from when she made baskets as a kid is highlighted in the new display. “When we got the swamp grass, we separated each bunch into three different sizes before it dried. The longest was over 20 inches long. When it was drying, it was time to get the knife and we flattened it by pulling each one, you can’t take two. It had to be one at a time. After you got enough for one bunch, you weaved it until it was about six inches wide.”
We can’t wait for you to see the new display once it is completed!
