[Bcma-l] Flaherty Photos & Inuit Sculpture at Langley Centennial Museum

[bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca]

Evocative photographs showing Inuit and First Nations individuals are
accented by Inuit sculptures now on display at the Langley Centennial
Museum & National Exhibition Centre in Fort Langley.

The images were captured by Robert J. Flaherty who is best known as the
father of documentary film. He made the famous 1922 movie "Nanook of the
North" that most agree was the first of this silent film genre. Flaherty
had travelled up the east coast of Hudson Bay and then to Baffin Island
early in the last century where he took portraits of the Native peoples
he encountered. The exhibition titled "Robert J. Flaherty's Northern
Focus: Photographs of Canada's Arctic Peoples, 1910-1914" is being
circulated by the Thunder Bay Museum.

These photographs are supplemented in the exhibition at the Langley
Centennial Museum by 27 Inuit sculptures originating from some of the
same communities in the region Flaherty visited. The soapstone and ivory
carvings date to the early period of Inuit art production for an outside
market that began in the 1950s. These works of art focus on the central
concerns in Inuit life including animals, hunting, and family. They have
been borrowed from the collection of the Vancouver Museum.

The Langley Centennial Museum is a department of the Township of Langley
that aims to be a vibrant community resource in part by presenting art
from around the country to Langley residents. The exhibition of Flaherty
photographs and Inuit sculpture runs until 3 May. 

The Museum, located at 9135 King Street in Fort Langley, is open Monday
through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and Sunday from 1:00 to
4:45 p.m. Admission is free of charge. Donations accepted.

Contact Paul Thistle (604) 888-3922, pthistle@tol.bc.ca