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Emma Hunt (Maxwalaogwa) (nee Billy) was an instructor in the teaching of Kwagulth and Nuu-chah-nulth culture. She was married to the late Chief Thomas Hunt. Emma was the daughter of a great Mowachaht Chief and Shaman, Dr. Billy, from the Mowachaht of Yuquot (Friendly Cove) on the west coast of Vancouver Island. .

Ellen May Neel was the niece of Mungo Martin and granddaughter of Charlie James, and she began drawing and painting very early in life, at age 12. Ellen Neel's father was Charles Newman who in turn was the son of James Newman. She attended St. Michael's Residential School in Alert Bay and learned outside of school how to carve from her grandfather, Charlie James. Ellen married Ted Neel and had a large family with him. In 1946, Ellen had to solely support the family by carving full-time, since Ted Neel suffered a serious stroke which impaired his health for life. Thus, her husband dealt with the business side of her work, while Ellen carved and painted. She worked on a number of restoration projects (including some at UBC) and commision projects as well. In 1950, she was elected onto the board of the Vancouver Centre Liberal Association--a support group for one of Canada's strongest political parties-- she became the first native woman to hold office. Ellen Neel produced works for the tourist trade and sold things through Totem Art Studios in Stanley Park. All the while Ellen worked, she taught her children her skills; at the age of 12, Dave Neel, the oldest son, was as good a carver as his mother, but in 1961 he died in a car accident in Washington State, and both Ellen and her husband never recovered from the pain. Her Kwakwaka'wakw name was Kakaso'las, which means "people come from faraway to seek her advice".

Elizabeth Lominska Johnson was born in Ossining, New York in 1941. In 1963, she received a B.A. in Psychology from Bucknell University. After receiving this degree she travelled in Europe for a year. In 1965 she married Graham Johnson. In 1967, she received a M.A. in Anthropology from Cornell University. Subsequently Johnson moved to Hong Kong where she lived from 1968 to 1971. Johnson continued to study at Cornell and in 1976 she received a Ph.D. in Anthropology upon completion of her dissertation, "Households and Lineages in an Urban Chinese Village," which is a study of the effects of rapid urbanization upon kinship groups in a two-lineage Hakka village.

In 1974 and 1975 Elizabeth Lominska Johnson was engaged as the "Coordinator, China Resources Project," at the University of British Columbia (UBC). In this position she acted as a liaison between local schools and researchers focusing on China at UBC. In 1977, she was employed as a museum cataloguer on a part-time basis both by MacMillan Bloedel, and by the Museum of Anthropology (MOA). From 1978 to 1979, she was employed as the Public Programmes Coordinator by the Vancouver Museum and Planetarium Association, where she developed, implemented and supervised new courses, social events, and lectures. Since March 1979, she has been an employee of the Museum of Anthropology. Until August 1986, she was Curator of Collections. In this position Johnson was responsible for the intellectual and administrative control of artifacts in the museum’s collection through registration, conservation, loan procedures; development of policy and procedures, the planning a new textile storage system, providing collections information to the public and the creation of publications relating to the collection.

Since August of 1986, she held the position of Curator of Ethnology. Several of her responsibilities continued to the new position, including curatorial activities and development of policies and procedures. New responsibilities included: teaching the course "Museum Principles and Methods" in Anthropology as well as occasional courses in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the maintenance of collections documentation, maintenance and development of museum archives, managing public access to archives and supervising archival workers, appraising artifacts where required for accessioning or income tax receipts, maintaining financial records on the collections curating and coordinating exhibits, as well as taking on curatorial initiatives to develop and promote the East Asian collections in specific and the world-wide textile collection in general. In 1988, the responsibility for the MOA Archives was transferred to Johnson from Audrey Shane. Subsequently, in 1999 responsibility for the archives was transferred to the newly hired museum archivist.

Johnson’s work however was not restricted to the tasks required by her various positions at the museum. Johnson has also published works suitable for academic, museum and public audiences. These publications include exhibit catalogues, articles and book reviews. She has been active in community and professional associations, including: the Canadian Museums Association; the British Columbia Museums Association; the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch; the Association for Asian Studies; the Archives Association of British Columbia; the Textile Society of Hong Kong; and the Canadian Asian Studies Association. She has regularly attended and participated in conferences, where she has presented papers on such diverse topics as Chinese ethnology, textile conservation, museum studies, archives, the development of curatorial partnerships, visible storage, textiles, repatriation, and Cantonese opera. Apart from her involvement with conferences Johnson has also been an active participant in the academic and museum communities at an international level. Beginning in 1998, she was a grant application assessor for the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong. In the same year she also took on work as an external examiner for the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as taking on a position as an advisor to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Johnson was also highly involved in the local Vancouver community. From 1983 to 1995 she was a member of the Chinatown Historic Area Planning Committee in Vancouver. Beginning in 1998, she was also a member of the Vancouver Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives Committee. In the fall of 2006 Johnson officially retired, though she continues to maintain her relationship with the Museum of Anthropology in a research capacity.

Edyth McClure was the wife of the former United Church missionary, Rev. Basil Hartley, who served in the Kitimat area.

Edward Sheriff Curtis was born near White Water, Wisconsin, in February 1868. The Curtis family moved soon thereafter to Minnesota, and he grew up near the Chipewa, Menomini, and Winnebago native tribes. He was 19 (1887) when his family moved to the pioneer villages of Puget Sound, Seattle, where his father, Johnson Curtis, died of pneumonia. Edward had to support the family. He farmed, fished, dug clams and did chores for neighbors, but nonetheless managed to buy his first camera.

With only grade school education, Edward Curtis taught himself photography from self-help guides and built his own camera. He was keenly interested in the Puget Sound natives’ way of life. He made his first Native Americans’ photographs in 1896. Among them was the photograph of Angeline, the daughter of Chief Seattle, whom he photographed at Seattle waterfront.

He spent a season with the Blackfoot natives of Montana. A selection of his photographs, "Evening on Puget Sound," "The Clam Digger," and "The Mussel Gatherer", won first place in the Genre Class at the National Photographic Convention and won again the next year.

Curtis was later invited to join the famous Harriman Expedition to Alaska the Bering Sea, which was the last great nineteenth century survey to ascertain the economic potential of America's frontier. On May 30, 1899, Curtis set sail from Seattle with a crew of 129 among whom were some of the world’s leading scientists including Robert Grinnel, a leading ethnographic expert on Native Americans. Curtis was one of the only two official photographers on the two-month expedition. After a trip of nine thousand miles the party returned with five thousand pictures and over six hundred animal and plant species new to science. New glaciers were mapped and photographed and a new fjord was discovered. Curtis photographed many of the glaciers, but it was his pictures of the native peoples that established his artistic genius.

For the most part, Curtis labored at his own expense. But in 1906, with Theodore Roosevelt’s connection, he was introduced to J. Pierpont Morgan who agreed to fund his “North American Indian” project.

Curtis lived among the native peoples and studied their ways in depth and by doing so gained their friendship and trust.

His health and family life suffered due to overwork and long absences. His wife, Clara, and their four children could not always accompany him. In 1919 Clara filed for divorce and received, as part of the settlement, Curtis’ studio with all of his negatives. The original filing was years earlier, but Curtis was always in the field and could not be made to come to court. She continued to manage the studio with her sister. Curtis was obliged to move, in 1920, from Seattle to Los Angeles with his daughter Beth from where he continued the Project and shoot films.

He began his involvement with the film industry by assisting Cecil B. Demille ("The Ten Commandments"). Throughout his career, Curtis would fight to be accepted by scholars of North American Natives, especially the approval of The Smithsonian Institute.

In 1930, Volumes 19 and 20 of "The North American Indian" were published. The project was finally completed. The work, initially expected to take 15 years, took 30 years during which time Curtis visited the Arctic and over 80 North American native tribes.

Edward Meade was born in Winnipeg and moved in 1930 to Vancouver Island, where he began studying the First Nations of the Pacific Coast. After serving overseas as a platoon commander during the Second World War, Meade returned to British Columbia to settle in Campbell River. There he founded the Campbell River Historical Museum in 1949, and volunteered as the Museum’s Curator for many years. Also while living in Campbell River, Meade became a reporter for the Comox District Free Press.

Although Meade was not a professional anthropologist, he did spend a significant amount of time traveling up and down the Pacific coast studying the history of various First Nations and collecting artifacts, and was considered something of an expert in the field. The UBC Museum of Anthropology purchased several artifact collections from him. He developed a particular interest in petroglyphs, and spent approximately ten years accumulating as much information as he could about petroglyph sites from Puget Sound to the Alaskan coast. This study resulted in his book Indian Rock Carving of the Pacific Northwest, published in [ca. 1971]. In addition to this book, Meade also published numerous articles on Pacific Northwest First Nations, and a war novel entitled Remember Me. In 1965, Remember Me was published as a paperback for the New Canadian Library series by McClelland & Stewart. In 1980, Meade self-published a biography entitled Biography of Dr. Samuel Campbell, R.N., Surgeon and Surveyer: Including the Naming and Early History of the Campbell River.

Biographical information unavailable.

E. Polly Hammer graduated from Bethany Nazarene College (now Southern Nazarene University) with a BA in Biology. In 1969 she graduated from the University of Colorado with an MA in Anthropology with an Archaeology focus and a Palaeontology minor. Hammer taught at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba from 1970 to 1974.

President of UBC, 1975 - 1983.

Doug Cranmer was born in Alert Bay, son of Chief Dan Cranmer and Agnes Hunt Cranmer. He set the standard of innovation for Kwakwaka'wakw art. His first formal instruction was in Victoria under Mungo Martin, in 1959. He worked with Bill Reid on UBC's Haida Village project c. 1959-62, and on the restoration of totem poles in Vancouver's Stanley Park. After completing the UBC project in 1962, Cranmer (with A.J. Scow and Dick Bird) founded a retail gallery, The Talking Stick. This was one of the few initiatives at the time through which First Nations art was marketed by First Nations people. Cranmer had totem pole commissions from around the world, and is considered an innovative master of flat design. His exhibitions include, Arts of the Raven, 1967, and the B.C. Pavillion at Expo '70, in Osaka Japan. His influence as a teacher was also significant, he taught at 'Ksan, the Vancouver Museum, and at Alert Bay, since 1977. He worked as an artist in residence at MOA in 1995. Doug was a hereditary chief of the 'Namgis band, and had also worked as a fisherman and a hand logger. He was an inspiration to his home community, contributing extensively to the construction of the U'mista Cultural Centre and the Bighouse at Alert Bay.

Dorothy Grant, OC, is an internationally renowned fashion designer and traditional Haida artist. She is a member of the Raven Clan of Kaigani Haida, and learned to sew and weave traditional Haida garments and ceremonial regalia from her maternal grandmother. In the early '80s, she was the first Indigenous designer to combine traditional Haida artwork with contemporary fashion.

Doreen Jensen, also known as Hahl Yee, was born on May 13 1933 in Kispiox, just north of Hazelton, British Columbia. The name Hahl Yee belongs to the Killerwhale family crest from the House of Geel of the Fireweed Clan. Jensen attended the Gitanmaax School of Northwest Indian Design where she learned to carve under the guidance of Tony and Henry Hunt. Doreen Jensen was also known for her work promoting aboriginal artwork, teaching Gitxsan language classes, and helping to revitalize traditional practices. She was a respected cultural leader and historian. In 1983, she curated an exhibit at MOA entitled “Robes of Power” which emphasized the strength of traditional design and craftsmanship. The exhibited highlighted the importance of regalia to First Nation ceremonies and the key role that women played in producing robes. Jensen went on to teach Gitxsan language classes at UBC and traditional art practices such as drum making, cedar baskets and bead work at Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver. In 1993, Doreen Jensen was acknowledged by the Vancouver YMCA and was rewarded with the “Woman of Distinction” award. She also received the Golden Eagle Feather from the Professional Native Women’s Association and has been honoured with a name given to her by James Sewid and family at one of their potlatches. In 2008, she was also nominated for the BC Governor General Award in recognition of her passion for culture and tradition. Jensen passed away in 2009 leaving behind a lifetime of contribution to a revitalizing First Nation culture, language and artwork.

Don was raised in Vancouver where he attended King George High School and the University of British Columbia, followed by postgraduate work at the Institute of Archaeology, London University and Washington State University, Pullman. In 1960 Don joined the staff of the Royal BC Museum as the first professional archaeologist in BC. In his 35 year career, Don continuously and selflessly promoted the discipline of archaeology. He conducted excavations on sites on southern Vancouver Island that contributed significantly to an understanding of Coast Salish history. Under his direction the Museum became the provincial centre for the documentation of archaeological sites and the storage of artifacts and associated data, held in trust for First nations. He was a member of the Archaeological Sites Advisory Board, of the committee that created 'Ksan Cultural Centre in Hazelton, worked on the Exxon Valdes Recovery Programme.

Donald N. Abbott, Acting Curator of Anthropology at the Royal B.C. Provincial Museum

The Director of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) is directly responsible for the general administration of the museum. Responsibilities carried out by the director include, but are not limited to: directing the development of museum policy, ensuring that the museum’s mandate is met and carried out, overseeing budgets and funding, maintaining correspondence with potential donors and managing staff. The Director also administers facilities and building maintenance and is responsible for overseeing exhibits and special programming hosted by the museum. As a part of the University of British Columbia (UBC), the director reports to the Dean of Arts.

MOA opened in 1947 and Dr. Harry Hawthorn, a professor of Anthropology, was appointed the first director in that year. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1974, when Michael Ames became the second director. Ames was director until he retired in 1997, when Ruth Phillips became director. She left the position in 2002, at which point Ames returned to MOA as Acting Director until Anthony Shelton was appointed as director in 2004.

Diane Elizabeth Barwick (née MacEachern) was a renowned political and historical anthropologist. Born in Canada in 1936, she remained a Canadian citizen until 1960, at which time she moved to Australia. Leading up to her departure from Canada, she studied at UBC in the school of Anthropology, from which she obtained her BA in 1959. She worked under Audrey Hawthorn at the Museum of Anthropology for many years leading up to her graduation. Before leaving for Australia, Barwick worked for nine months with Wilson Duff at the Provincial Museum of British Columbia. Her exposure to northwest coast First Nations communities would directly influence her later studies and work at the Australian National University. In pursuit of a Ph.D. there, she researched kin networks among Aboriginal Victorians. She was an active member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies and was a co-founder of the Aboriginal History journal.

Derek emigrated to Canada in 1961 with his first wife Doreen. He held a post-doctoral fellowship in the UBC Chemistry Department, then a position as Clinical Chemist at the Health Centre for Children, Vancouver General Hospital. In 1969, he founded the Biochemical Diseases (later Biochemical Genetics) Laboratory at Children's Hospital. In this emerging discipline, he collaborated with scientific and clinical colleagues across Canada and around the world to diagnose and investigate children with rare metabolic diseases, teaching and publishing extensively and receiving many awards. He was a professor emeritus of UBC's Faculty of Medicine with appointments in Pediatrics, Medical Genetics and Pathology serving on Boards and Committees including parent support societies. He was a past President of the Garrod Association of Canada and past President of the Canadian College of Medical Genetics and involved in developing training programs for Biochemical Genetic Fellows. Derek retired from UCB in 2003.

Dempsey Bob was born at Telegraph Creek on the Stikine River, in 1948. His mother was Flossie Carlick (Wolf); his father was Johnnie Bob (Raven). He began carving in 1970, and although he prefers wood, he also works in metals. Dempsey studied first with Freda Diesing and then at 'Ksan. Dempsey has focused on creating contemporary works that are classic Tlingit in style. His finely detailed carved wood masks translate into powerful bronze works. He went to Cara, Italy and studied with artisans working in bronze in the classic Italian tradition; this knowledge helped refine his style for bronze casting in which he is now an acknowledged master.

Biographical information not available.