Royal BC Museum in Victoria honoured for First Nations languages exhibit

VICTORIA – A three-year exhibit on B.C.’s First Nations languages has earned the Royal BC Museum an excellence in exhibition award from the American Alliance of Museums.

The Victoria museum — the only Canadian institution among the four 2015 winners named by the Washington, D.C.-based alliance — developed “Our Living Languages” together with the First Peoples’ Cultural Council, which supplied all the exhibition content.

Competition judges were impressed with the Royal BC Museum’s commitment to partnership with the council, the museum said. The group supports efforts to revitalize aboriginal language, arts and culture in the province.

The exhibit, which opened in June 2014 and is scheduled to run until June 2017, highlights First Nations communities that are working to help their languages survive. With 34 First Nations languages spoken in British Columbia, the province is a linguistic hot spot, the museum says.

The other 2015 award winners were the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.; Franklin Institute in Philadelphia; and National September 11 Memorial Museum in Jersey City, N.J.