Author Archives: khughes
nunuukʷin (we sing): (re)connecting to the natural and spiritual worlds through song
September 18 – December 6, 2025
Legacy Downtown – Inner Gallery | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen Territory
Curated by ḥapinyuuk, Dr. Tommy Happynook (huuʕiiʔatḥ /Huu-ay-aht First Nation), this exhibition is based on his personal connections to his homelands and ancestors. It explores nuučaan̓uł songs as methodology in the continued production of nuučaan̓uł knowledge and teachings that are integral in the continual transfer between humans (čaačaac̓iiʕasʔat, huuʕiiʔat, nuučaan̓ułat) and non-nuučaan̓uł peoples as well as between humans and the natural (ḥaḥuułi, čaačaac̓iiʕas) and the spiritual (yakʷiimit kʷiyiis nananiqsu) worlds.
Image: yaa yaa yaa waay yaa huu, 2023, ḥapinyuuk, Dr. Tommy Happynook (ḥuuʕiiʔatḥ, Canada). Yellow cedar rounds, elk hide, sinew, ink.
Credits: Vern Theroux at Pat Bay Leather supplied materials for the drums. Emily Thiessen at Wachaiy Studios did the screen printing. The drums were made by the artist.
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Salish Lines
September 18 – December 6, 2025
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen Territory
A selective retrospective of the art and life of SȾÁUTW̱ artist Doug LaFortune curated by Dr. Andrea N. Walsh. Since 1973, LaFortune has been working as an artist in several mediums, including carving, drawing, painting, and serigraphy. Several of his totem poles stand in Duncan, BC, and his welcome figures flank the entrance of First Peoples House at the University of Victoria. A carver for more than 40 years, Doug has been commissioned for various totem pole projects — large and small.
This exhibition will include an ‘archive’ of drawings dating back 40 years in which visitors to the gallery are invited to sit and meander through the decades of work.
Salish Lines Programming:
Doug LaFortune Limited Edition Print Signing and Sale
Dates: November 29, 2025, 1:00 – 4:00pm
Join us at the Legacy Art Gallery Downtown for a special opportunity to meet Doug LaFortune, who will be offering limited edition printer’s proof prints of his artwork—just in time for the holidays.
Enjoy light refreshments and take in the beautiful exhibition Salish Lines, before it closes on December 6th. Doug’s prints are stunning reflections of his artistry and Coast Salish heritage. Perfect for collectors and those who appreciate the beauty of Coast Salish art.
Family Curtain in Progress
Saturdays from 1:00 – 4:00pm
Dates: Oct 18th, 25th and Nov 1st, 8th and 15th 2025
Location: Legacy Art Gallery Downtown
Visit Legacy Downtown on upcoming Saturday afternoons to engage with Salish Lines artist Doug LaFortune as well as Sarah Jim, Sydney Griffith from the Quw’utsun Nation (Cowichan) and Carmin Bear-Blomberg as they work together to create a family curtain for Doug’s son, Bear.
This project invites visitors to engage with Indigenous artists, witness their creative process, and experience the beauty of their practices firsthand. By opening the making process, the artists share not only their skills, but also the values of collaboration, teaching, and cultural continuity.
We welcome you to connect, ask questions, and be part of this meaningful moment as the curtain comes to life.
Fall Exhibitions Opening Event
In celebration of two new exhibitions: Salish Lines and nunuukʷin (we sing): (re)connecting to the natural and spiritual worlds through song.
Dates: Saturday, September 20, 2025
Time: 1:00 – 4:00 pm (doors open at 12:30 pm)
Location: Legacy Art Gallery Downtown
The afternoon will open with a welcome and opening prayer by Elders Terri Barnhard and Kathy LaFortune, with remarks from Curator Dr. Andrea N. Walsh and guest speakers on behalf of artists Doug LaFortune and ḥapinyuuk, Dr. Tommy Happynook. A reception with light refreshments will follow.
We hope you will join us in celebrating these extraordinary artists with their families.
Exhibitions Panel Discussion
Dates: Monday, September 22, 2025
Time: 11:30 am – 12:50 pm
Location: On the UVic campus – In the Cornett Building, Room B235
Join UVic’s Anthropology Department for this panel discussion with Doug LaFortune and ḥapinyuuk, Dr. Tommy Happynook (huuʕiiʔatḥ /Huu-ay-aht First Nation).
A part of the Colloquium Series, this panel discussion is moderated by Dr. Andrea N. Walsh in connection with the two upcoming exhibitions: Salish Lines andnunuukʷin (we sing): (re)connecting to the natural and spiritual worlds through song. Both exhibitions will be on display at Legacy Art Gallery Downtown September 18th – December 6th.
Doug LaFortune: (W̱SÁNEĆ/Tsawout First Nation)
ḥapinyuuk, Dr. Tommy Happynook (huuʕiiʔatḥ /Huu-ay-aht First Nation): Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, UVic.
Dr. Andrea N. Walsh: Associate professor, Smyth chair in arts & engagement, Department of Anthropology, UVic.
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GEORGE CLUTESI: ḥašaḥʔap / ʔaapḥii / ʕac̓ik / ḥaaʔaksuqƛ / ʔiiḥmisʔap
GEORGE CLUTESI: ḥašaḥʔap / ʔaapḥii / ʕac̓ik / ḥaaʔaksuqƛ / ʔiiḥmisʔap
April 16 – July 25, 2025
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
GEORGE CLUTESI: ḥašaḥʔap / ʔaapḥii / ʕc̓ik / ḥaaʔaksuqƛ / ʔiiḥmisʔap is an exploration of the life and legacy of artist, activist, and scholar George Clutesi. His life’s work left an indelible mark on the preservation and celebration of the Nuu-chah-nulth community’s cultural traditions and customs. Featuring an extensive collection of Clutesi’s artworks, the exhibition further honours his legacy through striking displays of archival photographs and news accounts, a documentary film about his long-lasting impact for residential school Survivors, and artworks from contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth artists and scholars inspired by Clutesi’s activism and scholarship.
Participating artists include Hjalmer Wenstob (Tla-o-quiaht), Timmy Masso (Tla-o-quiaht), Marika Swan (Tla-o-quiaht), and Petrina Dezall (Mowachaht/Muchalaht). Participating University of Victoria scholars are Dr. Dawn Smith (Ehattesaht) and Dr. Tommy Happynook (Huu-ay-aht).
The name of the exhibition, written in the c̓išaaʔatḥ language, honours Clutesi’s many celebrated traits: ḥašaḥʔap (keep, protective) / ʔaapḥii (generous) / ʕac̓ik (talented) / ḥaaʔaksuqƛ (strong willed) / ʔiiḥmisʔap (treasure).
Listen to George Clutesi Interview “Person to Person” Show on CJAV Radio, March 3 1987. 93.3 The Peak, Formerly CJAV. Courtesy of Community Arts Council of the Alberni Valley.
Image: George Clutesi, The Storm, 1959, oil on canvas, private collection.
Exhibition Partners:
Visual Stories Lab Curatorial Collective: Andrea Naomi Walsh, Jennifer Claire Robinson, India Rael Young, and Raey Lee Costain (Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria).
Exhibition Supporters:
Urban Regalia: Westshore Stories
January 18 – April 11, 2020
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Inner Gallery |Lekwungen territory
Button blankets by Westshore Colwood Campus students. Curated by UVic Art History and Visual Studies students. A project of the Legacy Chair.
Button blanket robes are textile regalia worn in Northwest Coast feasts and ceremonies. Urban Regalia: Westshore Stories carries the vision of Gitxsan button blanket maker, fashion designer, and teacher Sugitt Lukxs — Yolonda Skelton from her studio to her students at the Westshore Colwood Campus. Westshore students tell stories from their lives and from making connections to the land using ovoids, u-forms, s-forms, melton wool fabric and buttons. UVic Art History and Visual Studies students curated this exhibition as part of their learning about oral art histories. Urban Regalia: Westshore Stories represents shared learning experiences and emerging connections between UVic and Westshore classrooms.
| Legacy Art Gallery + Fine Arts
Woven, Embroidered and Stitched in Tradition: Women’s Textile Labour in 20th Century Asia
Feb 8 to May 24, 2020
Legacy Maltwood | at the McPherson Library – Mearns Centre, UVic campus, Room 025 and at UVic Libraries Special Collections and University Archives Room A005
This exhibition is part of a three day symposium, “Gendered Threads of Globalization: 20th Century Textile Crossings in Asia Pacific.”, March 27-29, 2020. Full symposium details here *** Please note, this Gendered Threads of Globalization Symposium was postposed.
Curated by Claire Aitken (AHVS undergrad student) with consultation by Hitomi Harama, local kimono and Japanese culture expert and Yorika Terada (AHVS undergraduate student). Project supervised by Melia Belli Bose, Associate Professor of South Asian Art History with Caroline Riedel, Curator of Collections, UVic Legacy Art Galleries.
This exhibition showcases a dazzling array of luxury textiles from the University of Victoria’s collection and on loan from private collections. These pieces, exquisitely crafted in China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Bangladesh, shed light on women’s roles as makers, consumers, and connoisseurs between the late 19th century to today. This era witnessed monumental shifts in the production, accessibility, and commodification of garments globally. In the process, particularly women’s skilled textile labour was devalued. This exhibition draws attention to not only women’s heritage textiles throughout Asia, and their modern adaptations, it also closely considers their traditional makers and consumers.
Image: Gypsy Wharf-Sojan Badiar Ghat (Detail: Dulali reaching for a lotus flower).
Design by Surayia Rahman, embroidered by artisans of Arshi in Dhaka, Bangladesh, (2006). Photo courtesy of Kantha Productions LLC, (c) Maritime City Photography. Used with permission.
| Legacy Art Galleries + Art History & Visual Studies
Media coverage
UVic news: Textiles in focus at Legacy’s interrupted exhibition
Photo by Leon Fei
Object Biographies: Artists’ Lives through their Archives
September 19 to Feb 2, 2020
Opening Launch: September 26 | 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Legacy Maltwood | at the Mearns Centre – McPherson Library
Curated by Bradley Clements with Caroline Riedel
A printing block. Glaze samples. Pouches of pigments. Why are these items in UVic’s archives, and what can they tell us about the lives, relationships, artworks and practices of the artists who owned them? Bringing together materials from UVic’s Special Collections and University Archives in partnership with the Legacy Art Galleries, Object Biographies is a glimpse into the lives of artists through their archives.
Urban Regalia: An Exhibition in Two Movements
Contemporary Fashion by Sugiit Lukxs Designs
September 28 – December 21, 2019
Inner Gallery | Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.| Lekwungen territory
Urban Regalia is an exhibition that unfolds in two movements at the Legacy Gallery Downtown. Curated by Carolyn Butler Palmer (Associate Professor, UVic Art History and Visual Studies), the first movement Contemporary Fashion by Sug-ii-t LukxsDesign features Gitxsan designer Yolonda Skelton’s work, which mixes the aesthetics of Gitxsan button blanket robes with a twist of Audrey Hepburn’s style. The second movement opens in January 2020 and will be curated by Dr. Butler Palmer’s students and feature the button blankets of Ms. Skelton’s students at Westshore Centre for Learning and Training-Colwood Campus.
Opening Celebration & Artist Talk
Thursday, Oct. 10 | 7 – 9pm | Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory
Join us for the opening event and artist talk with Yolanda Skelton and Audrey Lundquist. Light Refreshments.
Image: Photo by Peter Jensen, Sugiit Lukxs Designs, Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week 2017.
We Carry Our Ancestors: Cedar, Baskets and Our Relationships with the Land
September 28 – December 21, 2019
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory
Curated by Lorilee Wastasecoot (BC Arts Council Curatorial Intern)
We Carry Our Ancestors weaves together generations of Indigenous women through cedar basketry. For the first time ever, Legacy Art Galleries will exhibit Nuu-chah-nulth and Salish historical baskets from the collection alongside portraits of weavers including Alice Paul, Rosie Ross, Mary Jane Jackson, Mathilda Jim, Julianna Williams, Liz Happynook, Lena Jumbo and Ellen Jumbo by documentary photographer Ulli Steltzer. Contemporary baskets by Salish artists Angela Marston and Brenda Crabtree, among others, will also be exhibited. Through new and intensive community research, this exhibition honours the resilience of women who have carried their cultures forward by passing down the art of cedar basketry to future generations.
Image: Ulli Steltzer, Alice Paul, 1975, Gift of Ulli Steltzer.
Programs & Events
Cedar Weaving Workshop With Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ weavers Rose & Brian Wilson
Saturday, October 26, 2019 | *Drop in between 10am-3pm (or while supplies last)
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory |Faceboook Event
COST – Admission is always free | Weaving kits are between $15-$30. All proceeds go to the artists. Come overload your senses with the touch and smell of cedar while listening to weaver Rose Wilson and her son Brian from Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ First Nation share how they process, harvest and weave with cedar. Weave your own cedar bracelet, headband or small basket. No previous weaving experience necessary.
Curator Tour
Saturday, December 7, 2019 | 1pm
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory | Faceboook Event
Join us for a tour, discussion and tea with curator Lorilee Wastasecoot to respectfully close We Carry Our Ancestors.
By Bus – Sacred Cedar: History, Art and the Land
Land Based Workshop with Sarah Jim and Tiffany Joseph
Saturday, Oct. 19 | 9:15 am to 2:30 pm | *return time is approximate | Faceboook Event
REQUIRES REGISTRATION
To register, please email legacy@uvic.ca | *Space is limited
COST – $20 Students / $30 General Public/UVic Staff & Faculty | *Please bring cash
***Please arrive at 9:15 at Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory
Curator Lorilee Wastasecoot will give a short introduction and tour of the exhibition We Carry Our Ancestors: Cedar, Baskets, and Our Relationships to the Land.
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10:00am – The bus will travel from Legacy Art Gallery Downtown to Todd Inlet or SṈIDȻEȽ to support the SṈIDȻEȽ Resiliency Project by contributing to the land restoration and cultural revitalization work of Tiffany Joseph and Sarah Jim. We will gather and spend time on the land to talk about how XPȺ, which is SENĆOŦEN for cedar, is sacred and has been central to the way of life to the W̱SÁNEĆ people. Our co-hosts, Sarah Jim and Tiffany Joseph will talk about the significance of cedar through history, art, and contemporary relationships with cedar and explore the restoration strategies they contemplate in their work at SṈIDȻEȽ.
Tiffany Joseph is of ancestry is of Sḵx̱wu7mesh (Fresh Water people) and W̱SÁNEĆ (Saltwater people, Emerging people) peoples and she is a SENĆOŦEN Language & Culture Revitalization apprentice.
Sarah Jim is an emerging artist from W̱SÁNEĆ. Her ancestry is mixed but her roots are in Tseycum First Nation. She has developed her skills and interests further by attaining a BFA at Uvic. Due to her close relationship to the land, she has been making art that consists of local flora and fauna, Coast Salish elements, and dreamy landscapes. Sarah’s intense interest and love for W̱SÁNEĆ territory has taken her down a path that allows her to interact with the natural environment by learning about the native plants of the area and reflecting upon those interactions visually.
NOTE ***Please dress for the weather. We will be working outside so please be prepared for some physical activity with proper footwear, rain jacket and water bottle.
***We will have lunch together on the land so please bring yourself a bagged lunch and any snacks that you may need.
Opening Celebration
Saturday, Sept. 28 | 4 to 6pm |Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lekwungen territory
Join us for the opening event of We Carry Our Ancestors. Light Refreshments.
The Ground Above Us
July 26 – September 14, 2019
Inner Gallery | Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. Lekwungen territory
Charles Campbell and Farheen HaQ with Yuxwelupton Qwal’qaxala (Bradley Dick)
This collaborative project intersects our practices as visual artists, racialized bodies and guests on these territories. We ask the question: How does our creative work of making space for our voices and experience meet the ground and history here?
“What I see us recording is the movement of time and the way that the rock is not solid, and the way that it’s been cracked and formed and changed and it moves…”
“The effort we’re making to find our place on this land, to touch it and be grounded by it, also speaks to our ungrounding, to the places we’ve been disconnected from, where we no longer have a place.”
– Farheen & Charles in conversation
Opening Celebration
Friday July 26 | 7 pm
Join us for the opening celebration of The Ground Above Us with artists Charles Campbell, Farheen HaQ and Yuxwelupton Qwal’qaxala (Bradley Dick). Refreshments will be provided!
IBPOC Meditation Night
Wednesday Sept. 11 | 7pm
Join us for an evening of quiet reflection as we take in the exhibition The Ground Above Us and sit with intention and presence on Lkwungen territory. This meditation night is open to self identified Indigenous, Black and People of Colour. No meditation experience required. Some meditation cushions will be provided but please bring your own if you are able.
Closing Conversation
Thursday Sept. 12 | 7 – 9pm
Join Farheen HaQ, Charles Campbell and Yuxwelupton Qwal’qaxala (Bradley Dick) in conversation as they speak about their process, lessons learned, and using art as a vehicle to deepen friendships and come into better relation with the lands of the Lkwungen people.
Women Artists, Changing Collections: Recent Acquisitions
April 20 – July 20, 2019
Inner Gallery | Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Art by women is under-represented in most public collections and exhibitions. How can this be changed and how is it changing at the Legacy? Women Artists, Changing Collections: Recent Acquisitions presents works by women that are new to UVic’s Legacy Art Galleries’ collection. These artists come from diverse backgrounds, have multiple inspirations and help viewers to see from unique perspectives.
Legacy’s mission is to promote dialogue around issues that matter, leading the gallery to feature art and exhibitions by Indigenous women, women of colour, and gender-diverse artists. This exhibition aims to highlight the possibilities, difficulties and importance of presenting works by under-recognized groups.
Featured artists include Pitseolak Ashoona, Eva Campbell, Pnina Granirer, Angela Marston, Meryl McMaster, Carol Moiseiwitsch, Ellen Neel, Lou-ann Neel, Susan Point, Mary Pratt, Jennifer Stillwell, Marika Echachis Swan, and Jennifer Waelti Walters. The exhibition is curated by Young Canada Works intern Bradley Clements (MA, 2018) with BC Arts Council intern Lorilee Wastasecoot, (BA, 2018).
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada.
Curators Tour and Discussion – With Guest Curators Bradley Clements and Lorilee Wastasecoot
Saturday May 18 | 2pm
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Lou-ann Neel in Conversation with Lorilee Wastasecoot
Thursday June 6 | 7pm
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St.
Lekwungen territory
Join us for an evening of shared discussion with Kwakwaka’wakw artist and RBCM Repatriation Specialist, Lou-ann Neel and UVic Legacy Galleries Curatorial Intern, Lorilee Wastasecoot. The discussion will address the intersectional nature of working with museum and gallery collections. How can we move forward to better represent marginalized communities and better care for Indigenous art and material culture? Lou-ann and Lorilee will share how they are working to improve museum practices in order to strengthen relationships with Indigenous peoples, support cultural revitalization and build community.
Translations: The Art and Life Of Elizabeth Yeend Duer—Gyokushō 玉蕉
January 12 – April 6, 2019
Legacy Downtown | 630 Yates St. | Lkwungen Territory
Translations showcases the movement of ideas, aesthetics, politics, and people between England, Japan, and Victoria, Canada, by looking at the life and work of Anglo-Japanese artist Elizabeth Yeend Duer (1889–1951). Born a British citizen in Nagasaki to an Englishman and a Japanese woman, Duer studied Nihonga, a traditional Japanese-style painting, with the renowned painter and teacher Atomi Gyokushi 跡見 玉枝. Duer took on the artistic identity of Gyokushō 玉蕉. She immigrated to Victoria in 1940 and is among the remarkably few people of Japanese heritage who were not interned during World War II. Instead, she Japanized her new environment by producing Nihonga-style paintings of local indigenous wildflowers while her own identity was being anglicized.
Co-curators: Carolyn Butler Palmer, Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Art of the Pacific Northwest, Art History & Visual Studies, University of Victoria; Mikiko Hirayama Associate Professor of Asian Art History and Director of Asian Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Cincinnati; and Janice Okada, B.A., M.M.St.
A project of the Williams Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Art of the Pacific Northwest.
Image: Kamass Camassia quamash; Camas, Elizabeth Yeend Duer—Gyokushō 玉蕉, 1941.
Events
Curators Tour
Saturday, February 2, 2019 | 2PM
Join Williams Legacy Chair Carolyn Butler Palmer (Associate Professor, UVic Art History and Visual Studies) and exhibition co-curator Janice Okada (B.A., M.M.St) to learn more about the exhibition and Elizabeth Duer’s fascinating story.
This event is happening during UVic’s Alumni Week! Check out other Alumni Week events.
Research Symposium
Saturday, January 19, 2019 | 9AM – 5PM
This symposium examines intersections between Victoria, England and Japan from the late nineteenth century to the 1950s on a range of topics including Japan’s influence in England, the history of Japanese Gardens in Victoria, artist travellers to Japan, Japanese-Canadians and internment in British Columbia, interracial families in Japan, and Duer’s life, wildflower paintings, and ethnobotany.
View the symposium schedule on Eventbrite (archived).
Artist in Gallery: Cindy Mochizuki
Other Faces of Nihonga
Friday, March 8 4 – 8pm | Saturday, March 9, 11am – 3pm
We are excited to welcome Vancouver-based artist Cindy Mochizuki to the Legacy Gallery this March! Join Mochizuki in a collective embroidery and listening experience focusing on the historical and contemporary racialized experiences of women of Japanese Canadian and Japanese descent in British Columbia. Mochizuki’s project responds to the Legacy Gallery’s current exhibition Translations: The Art and Life of Elizabeth Yeend Duer—Gyokushō 玉蕉.
Image: 105 Chrysanthemums, as part of 13 Ways to Summon Ghosts at the Gordon Smith Gallery North Vancouver, photo credit: SITE photography, 2017.
Ikebana Workshop with Amanda Gaunt
Sunday, March 17 | 1 – 3PM
Join us at the Legacy Downtown for a beginner ikebana workshop and learn the Basic Upright Style Moribana, one of two styles that are the foundation for all Japanese flower arranging. The workshop will take place amid the beautiful watercolour paintings of Victoria wildflowers by Elizabeth Duer—Gyokushō 玉蕉.
Container, kenzan and plant materials will be provided so you can continue to create beautiful arrangements at home. Please bring a pair of clippers and a bag to carry the container and kenzan.
Amanda Gaunt is a teacher in the Sogetsu School of Ikebana. She studied in Japan for more than 12 years.