Museum of Anthropology at UBC

At the edge of the cliffs above the Strait of Georgia, a concrete building made of tall posts and beams stands in a garden of cedar poles. The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia is one of the finest museums in Canada, and its architecture is part of the experience. Arthur Erickson designed the building, which opened in 1976, drawing on the post-and-beam structures of Northwest Coast Indigenous houses and arranging concrete and glass so that light pours into the central Great Hall and the surrounding forest seems to press close to the windows.

The museum itself dates back to 1949, when the university began to assemble a collection, and the first museum rooms were in the basement of the library. It stands on the Point Grey campus, on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people, and the museum works closely with Indigenous communities in presenting and caring for the collections. Nearly 50,000 ethnographic objects are held here, with an emphasis on First Nations cultures of the Pacific Northwest, together with many thousands of archaeological items and works from cultures around the world.

The Great Hall is the highlight. Massive carved poles, house posts and welcome figures, made by Haida, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuxalk, Gitxsan and other artists, stand under the high glass walls, and the effect is of a forest of carved ancestors. In the rotunda stands Bill Reid's famous cedar sculpture The Raven and the First Men, which shows the Haida story of the first people emerging from a clamshell. Other galleries display masks, canoes, baskets, textiles and jewellery, and the visible storage galleries let visitors look through thousands of items in drawers and cases, an approach that opens the museum's reserves to the public.

Outside, on the grounds, two Haida houses and a group of poles stand in a landscaped setting looking out to the water and the mountains, giving a sense of how the works were originally meant to be seen. The museum's programmes include talks, performances and workshops, and it has been at the forefront of discussions about repatriation and collaboration with Indigenous communities.

Visitors should check that hours, ticket prices and special exhibitions vary through the year, so check the museum's website before you visit. The UBC campus is a short bus ride from downtown Vancouver, and the Pacific Spirit Regional Park and Wreck Beach are close by.