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In pursuit of Nuxalk collections in the world’s museums, Marlene King is on a mission

“I’m bringing awareness to our people and bringing them to museums to see our artifacts,” said King.
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Some of the weaving done by Marlene King of the Nuxalk Nation in Bella Coola. (Photo submitted)

Marlene King of the Nuxalk Nation has an interesting bucket list.

She plans to visit every museum in the world that has Nuxalk artifacts in its collection and take trips to those museums with grant funding.

A weaver herself with an interest in museum collections and curating, she applied and was accepted for an internship at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia between May and July 2022.

“I’m bringing awareness to our people and bringing them to museums to see our artifacts to start talking about repatriation processes and bringing home our items.”

Even for people to visit a museum is crucial, she added.

“A lot of our people will have never been to a museum.”

She also wants so share the feelings she had when she was in the museum seeing Nuxalk items for the first time.

“It was amazing, especially with the weaving.”

With one of the grants she received she took eight people to Vancouver to see the collection at the MOA and shared some of the things she had learned during her internship.

Another grant success will enable her to go to the Burke Museum in Seattle. Her plan is to keep writing grant applications to go do research and take photographs.

King weaves with cedar to make hats, headbands, bracelets and baskets.

She did not learn the art when she was a child, but as an adult has and loves doing it.

“It’s so therapeutic and very, very healing. All the energy you put into weaving is a really good. It is a feeling of serenity when you are working with cedar. “

During the MOA internship she was doing a two-week practicum at the Haida Gwaii Museum at Skidegate and strategically arranged to be there when Haida carver Christian White’s totem pole was being raised at a potlatch ceremony in Old Massett in August 2022.

She also attended a field trip with 26 people to a traditional area.

“We set up camp and we found a perfect spot to harvest spruce roots, she recalled. “I have never done that in my life and you know, I got one of the longest roots.”

It was a huge honour to be part of the group, she added.

Next she plans to go to New York and Ottawa and is working on grant applications.

“I’m definitely going to Germany,” she said. “That is what I really want to do and I want my granddaughter with me so she can see the world through her own eyes.”

READ MORE: Nuxalk College undertakes language digitization project

READ MORE: New downtown bench honours late Nuxalk artist



monica.lamb-yorski@wltribune.com

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A cedar hat in progress created by Marlene King. (Photo submitted)
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Marlene King works on a cedar hat. (Photo submitted)
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A work in progress and a completed work by Marlene King in Bella Coola. (Photo submitted)


Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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