New CEO at Museum

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The Royal British Columbia Museum's appointment of Pauline Rafferty looks like good news for the province?s Aboriginal community. Rafferty started as the museum's new chief executive officer on Feb. 1.

After growing up in England and spending time in the United States, Rafferty moved to Canada and graduated with a degree in archaeology from Simon Fraser University. She then worked along the central and northwest coast performing archaeological investigations and surveys.

"I have enormous respect for First Nations culture which goes back to those early days," she said during an interview on her first day on the job. "I have always been in awe of the people who lived on the coast and who created their culture by living off of the land. I have always been amazed by that and I think we have a lot to learn from those ways."

Rafferty spent time working as an archaeologist in the Cariboo region and in northern B.C. She also supervised and promoted heritage sites and cultural programs across the province. She was manager at the B.C. Heritage Trust, which funds conservation and restoration projects, and held directorships in tourism, recreation, marketing and systems development programs in several ministries and agencies.

When she joined the museum in 1992 her first task was to formulate a long-term plan for the museum based on province-wide consultations. She met with people across B.C. to find out what they thought the museum should be. It meant finding out how to build connections and how to live those connections because the museum is for the whole province.

"For First Nations, I would say that our experience through the discussions around the Nisga'a Treaty and through the development for "Out of the Mist," (Nuu Chah Nulth exhibit) they have been learning experiences and have added great depths to the museum and the people who work here," said Rafferty.

"Through my time here, I want to build on what has been accomplished. We don't have all the answers and we cannot work in isolation and cannot expect to be successful if we're not asking for assistance and working in partnership all the way through," she said.

The relationship building the museum has been doing takes time. Before they started work on the "Out of the Mist" exhibition, there were at least a couple of years where discussions and relationship building went on with the Nuu Chah Nulth.

"You have to look at that whole history and say, 'how are we going to make it different? What have we learned from how we have done things in the past, the understanding that we have then and how we can make a difference?'" said Rafferty.

The museum is currently planning for the next permanent gallery by looking at its collections in their entirety?that's 10 million objects.

The challenge is to integrate the collection into the new gallery that will educate, enthrall, excite and make everyone proud of British Columbia.

"Part of that will be a complete interdisciplinary approach and included in that will be discussions with First Nations," said Rafferty. "The idea is that rather than having exhibits based upon geographic areas, such as for example, the Coast, we are planning to have the whole province represented."