Royal BC Museum navigates major reset after building cancellation

The Royal BC Museum exhibits a recreation of the house of Chief Kwakwabalasami, the late Jonathan Hunt, a Kwakwaka’wakw chief in the community of Tsaxis, near Fort Rupert, B.C. The house was restored by his grandson, artist Richard Hunt.

The tourists who flock to Victoria every summer are often fascinated by the historic objects created by First Nations in British Columbia: the totem poles, the house fronts and the masks that are the jewels of the province’s museum collections. Visiting the Royal BC Museum, they may feel let down – the showstopping Totem Hall was closed in 2022 – or delighted by an exhibit about Indigenous languages and the Jonathan Hunt House, the recently restored longhouse of a Kwakwaka’wakw chief.

“Many tourists come to the Royal BC Museum to see Indigenous cultu