Vancouver Museum, Making a Living, Making a Life

The non-Native presence in British Columbia dates back through two centuries to a period when Spanish and British navigators vied to establish their respective territorial claims. That diey sought to rule both land and over which neither had any right was in their eyes immaterial. Britain's claims ultimately prevailed, and her representative in the area at the time, Captain George Vancouver, acquired a reputation that has grown over time to nearheroic proportions. It was the approaching bicentennial of Vancouver's voyage, coupled with a growing recognition of imbalance in its permanent displays, that led the Vancouver Museum to develop its ambitious exhibition, Making a Living, Making a Life. The exhibition that ultimately emerged, however, had little to do with either George Vancouver or the bicentennial. Instead, Making a Living, Making a Life endeavoured to tell the work stories of immigrants to British Columbia's Lower Mainland in the period 1900-92, while the voyages of the eighteenth century mariners were used only to introduce the theme of people of many cultures living and working side by side. Developed in consultation with the Vancouver Multicultural Society, Making a Living, Making a Life was a bold attempt on the part of the Museum to redress the omissions in its permanent galleries, to attract an audience more representative of the city's current cultural mix, and to establish longer term relationships with individuals and organizations representative of that cultural mix. Joan Seidl (now the Museum's Curator of History) developed the exhibition in her capacity of guest curator, while D. Jensen & Associates undertook its design. Fabrication and installation services were provided by the institution's own exhibition staff. The exhibition ran for the better part of a year and occupied the facility's vast temporary exhibition wing, a space charged with memories of shows ranging from the spectacular and successful to the meagre and mundane. In many respects, Making a Living, Making a Life belongs more to the latter category than to the former. While the Museum's goal of reaching out to a wider community than that traditionally associated with the institution was unquestionably desirable, the exhibition lacked inspiration, engendered confusion, and revealed a story line more suited to the printed page than to a museum exhibition. In developing the exhibition, the Museum chose a chronological approach over a thematic one, dividing the twentieth century into four historic periods: 1900-09,1910-29,193049, and 1950-92. Each of these periods was dealt with in its own separate gallery space, using a combination of textual and graphic panels, dioramas, display cases, and periodroom reconstructions. A fifth gallery space was devoted to public programmes and temporary displays of objects from interested community organizations. The exhibition began promisingly enough, with a large and dramatic photo mural of the Spanish vessels Sutil and Mexicana meeting First Nations at Maguaa in 1792. The accompanying text, paired with a mountain goat horn traded to George Vancouver at about the same time, set the scene for a story about cultural diversity and exchange in Canada's western-most province. On turning into the exhibition's initial gallery, however, one was suddenly thrust into the twentieth century. The gallery's introductory panel summarized the working and racial character of the Lower Mainland in the century's first decade, revealing an area of predominantly British, but of increasingly Asian character, an area in which organized labour was rapidly seizing a foothold and in which the original inhabitants were consigned to a minor and virtually invis-