Our Living Languages

Our Living Languages

Our Living Languages Objects

Examine some of the objects and artworks from the Our Living Languages exhibition.

You will notice some interesting fonts in the image captions. First Nations languages are traditionally oral (spoken, not written). Most writing systems (orthographies) were first developed by linguists, anthropologists and missionaries. Because many indigenous languages contain sounds that do not occur in English, unique symbols were needed to represent them.

Click on the images to read the captions. How many unique symbols can you find in the captions?

This is a photograph of an Interior Salish First Nations baby basket.
This is a photograph of high-topped First Nations moccasins with intricate beadwork and fur trim.
This is a photograph of a First Nations turquoise with red and black, beaded vest
This is a photograph of First Nations speaker's staff or talking stick.
This is a photograph of a commissioned interactive artwork about language, with an phone receiver attached to it.
This is an image of artist Debra Sparrow’s artwork called Salish Loom, showing intertwining traditional blanket design with contemporary images that represent consonants of the Halkomelem alphabet.
This is a photograph of Jaalen Edenshw's artwork, carved of wood, with a red and black painted design.

Our Living Languages Visitors

This is a photograph showing the tall, colourful language poles in the welcome forest at the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph of visitors listening to greetings in the Welcome Forest of the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph of a girl pressing a button on one of the welcoming panels at the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph of a woman standing in front of and studying the First Peoples' Language map.
This is a photograph of five young boys gathered around the interactive First Peoples language map.
This is a photograph of a child using the interactive language map at the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph of a man and a woman seated in the cradle theatre in the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph of young visitors sitting in a round theatre watching the feature film in the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph of four women from behind as they watch the feature film in the round theatre at the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph of a girl holding a receiver at the Interactive Light Pillar at the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph showing the profile of a child with headphones on sitting at a computer kiosk at the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph of a woman standing up and watching a video in the Our Living Languages exhibition.
This is a photograph showing the backs of two children sitting at chairs, with headphones, using two separate computer kiosks at the Our Living Languages exhibition.

The Copyright Act applies to materials that are part of Royal BC Museum and Archives collections; this includes but is not limited to still images, documents, cartographic records, sound recordings and moving images. Copies provided by the Royal BC Museum and Archives may only be used for the purpose of education, research or private study, and any use of the copy for a purpose other than education, research or private study may require you to obtain the authorization of the copyright owner of the work in question.

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