Bill Reid Gallery: Community Access Day. Exhibition

Tickets

Cost: Free

FREE admission from 2 pm to 5 pm every first Friday of the month.
Thank you to our Community Access Partner Downtown Van for helping us to remove barriers to access and to participate in arts and culture—together we make Downtown Vancouver a place where everyone feels welcome.

Kihl ‘Yahda Christian White: Master Haida Artist
On View: February 1, 2025 – February 1, 2026.
This exhibition is the first major solo exhibition of Haida artist Kihl ‘Yahda, Christian White. Guest curated by Sdahl Ḵ'awaas, Lucy Bell, also of the Haida Nation, the exhibition features artworks that span the entirety of Christian’s 50-year career, as well as collaborative works from several of his apprentices.
Christian White is of the Yahgulaanas Haida Raven Clan. Influenced by his father Chief Edenshaw, Christian and his family have been major forces in keeping the Haida culture, art and language alive. Early highlights of his career include the creation of a 35-foot pole with his father, and the carving of a sculpture titled Raven Dancer, which was purchased by the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, BC, when he was only 22 years old and the recent Tluuwée Kwiiyaas, a 52-foot canoe.
He is best known for his intricate argillite carvings, inlay work and monumental works. Christian also creates wood-carved masks and boxes, gold and silver jewelry, and steamed cedar canoes. He began carving argillite at fourteen and has been working as a full-time artist since the age of seventeen. In 2005, Christian constructed a traditional longhouse in his home village of Old Massett which is the home of Tluu Xaada Naay Society and dance group.
Christian is a founding member of the Old Massett Repatriation Committee. He has travelled to help bring home over 500 Haida Ancestors and has engaged with some of the 12,000 Haida Belongings held in museums worldwide, bringing inspiration and knowledge back to his community.

NDN Giver
On view from September 27, 2025 – February 22, 2026
This exhibition marks the solo curatorial debut of BRG’s Assistant Curator, Amelia Rea (Haida).

NDN Giver explores the layered meanings within both everyday and extraordinary gifts that circulate through the potlatch. Blankets, coppers, canoes, prints, mugs, trade beads and devil’s club strung into necklaces all become carriers of law, memory, and relation to one another. 
The title NDN Giver reclaims a phrase rooted in colonialism that mocked Indigenous generosity. In reality, the practice of giving upheld in the potlatch reflects the complexity of responsibilities in Indigenous governance and exchange. To give is to strengthen ties, and to receive is to take on the responsibility of carrying them forward.
This exhibition is not about objects alone, but about the stories they carry and the obligations they enact. Whether a humble mug or a crest-bearing treasure, they act as a living archive of law, love, accountability, and kinship. 
"What’s in a mug? Or more specifically, what’s in a potlatch mug?
During lunch at my aunty and uncle’s house, I paused in front of a kitchen cabinet overflowing with mugs gifted at potlatches. It became clear that these mugs are more than vessels for coffee or tea. Each one is filled to the brim with family history, clan business, names bestowed, marriages celebrated, alliances formed, and truths spoken. To accept a gift at a potlatch is to accept responsibility to carry forward what transpired and to affirm agreement with the events that took place. And in truth, it is less a gift in the Western sense and more a form of payment, a recognition of the witness, and an obligation to remember, uphold, and retell the histories that were set into motion." – Amelia Rea

About Gudangee Xahl Kil Amelia Rea:
Amelia is a member of the Tsiits Git’anee clan from Old Massett, Haida Gwaii, and a passionate Haida Nation-based scholar with deep roots in her culture. Raised immersed in the Haida language, singing, dancing, and repatriation, Amelia has spent her life learning and contributing to the preservation and transmission of Haida traditions. A lifelong member of the Haida Repatriation Committee, she follows the guidance of her mother, aunties, and elders, and has spent countless hours in museums, potlatches, language classes, and with cultural bearers across the community. This rich upbringing has instilled in Amelia a profound love for Haida culture and storytelling.
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