The Book of the Grand Hall

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

This little book was produced by the Canadian Museum of Civilization as
a guide to the display of Pacific Coast cultures in its Grand Hall. It
combines information on the actual construction of the exhibit with
background information on the artifacts on display. There is also a very
brief introduction to the cultures of the coastal First Nations. The
text is illustrated with an interesting collection of historical and
contemporary photographs, including a beautiful color photograph of the
Grand Hall “village” on the cover.

Museum visitors would be well advised to consult this book as they tour
the exhibits, for it contains the kind of information that really ought
to be presented as part of the display. Many visitors come away with the
mistaken impression that they have seen pre-contact houses from a single
village, but here the author (chief of the Canadian Ethnology Service)
explains the variety, and 19th-century origins, of the houses. The
significance of the totem poles and the story that is told by one
particular pole are clearly set out. It is also good to see the names of
the exhibition designers, builders, and interpreters listed, another
piece of information that ought to be provided routinely in museum
displays.

Readers will find almost nothing here about the history of the Pacific
Coast peoples, or about the controversies currently raging over the
issue of relations between museums and aboriginal peoples. There is no
behind-the-scenes glimpse into the museum curators’ reasoning that led
to the decision to feature northwest coastal cultures to the
near-exclusion of all others. Finally, a list of suggested further
readings would have been useful. In general, though, this is an
attractive and interesting introduction to a display that has become the
focal point of the museum.