UBC exhibit highlights revitalization of Nuxalk language and culture through historical treasures

The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is showcasing the “world’s first” exhibit of the Nuxalk Nation until Jan. 4, 2026. 

Nuxalk Strong: Dancing Down the Eyelashes of the Sun is co-curated by Snxakila–Clyde Tallio, director of culture and language at Nuxalk Nation, and MOA curator Jennifer Kramer. With about 70 Nuxalk historic treasures from the MOA collections, other museums, and private and family collections, the exhibit depicts the reconnection of the Nuxalk Nation with its material heritage. 

“They have never had their own Nuxalk-focused exhibition, so I think that [was] something that needed to be corrected,” Kramer says. 

The Nuxalk Nation has a history spanning over 14,000 years on the central northwest coast. 

“There is an incredible time depth of culture and social organization,” Kramer says. “This exhibition draws from Nuxalk past, shows Nuxalk present, but is really about Nuxalk future.”

The exhibit is a “snapshot” of the work the nation is doing now and clearing the path for future projects to revitalize Nuxalk language and culture. As an anthropologist, Kramer says she is supporting the nation’s work by aiding the reconnection with its material treasures — including masks, button blankets, mountain goat wool, robes, raven rattles, and chiefly hereditary headdresses — in museums around the world.

This reconnection, Kramer says, will help spark inspiration, ceremony, and pride in being Nuxalk, and allow for relearning of technologies like cedar-bark weaving and mountain goat and sheep wool weaving.

“What I’m able to do as an ally is to bring some of those treasures closer to home,” she says.  

Some of the treasures, which Tallio and Kramer have been able to borrow for this exhibition, have never been in the presence of the descendants of their original owners, she says. 

The journey of curating an exhibition focused on the Nuxalk Nation is not just about artifacts, Karmer says, it is about relationships, traditions, and the connections that have been built over decades.

While most of the historical treasures were made in the early 19th and 20th centuries, Kramer says the exhibition also includes contemporary artwork and ceremonial treasures like photographs and notes. 

The exhibition is broken into eight sections based on different Nuxalk values like generous reciprocity and clearing the path for those to come. 

“We chose treasures in museum collections that would help us tell those values …. We have managed to bring together a lot of incredible treasures that can tell these meaningful values and ways of doing things in a Nuxalk way.” 

Kramer adds she sees the exhibit having two audiences.

“One is [outwardly focused] on the non-Nuxalk community [and] non-Native visitors from around the world who don’t know very much about the Nuxalk Nation.” 

The other audience, she says, is the Nuxalk community, allowing others to be part of the work its members are doing to heal from colonial traumas and move into strong futures. 

“I think [the exhibit] will be educational for many of our visitors, even those that are from British Columbia and now are learning about the history of Native and non-Native interaction from colonial era to the present.”

For more information about the exhibit, visit www.bit.ly/nuxalkstrong.