2003 – CELEBRATING WILD SALMON: THE CORTES EXPERIENCE
(Curated by Doreen Thompson)
This exhibit celebrated Cortes fishermen – and women fishers from the 1920s to the 1990s.
Highlights included stories from many local fishermen, fishing and net-mending equipment, restored model of the troller Sylva Jane, 5 species of Pacific salmon, life aboard a fishboat and commercial river fishing.
School students contributed drawings, card designs, poems, T-shirt logo design, paper mache fish and button designs that were all incorporated into the exhibit. Replicas of early First Nations cedar, bone and horn fishing equipment, created by author Hilary Stewart as examples of coastal Native fishers, were on loan and eventually Hilary donated them to the Museum. A model of a First Nation canoe and a bentwood box ere also loaned.
Salmon streams on Cortes were highlighted along with an exhibit by Sabina Leader-Mense of Eelgrass Beds and their importance as nursery areas for many species and as a stabilizer for sandy bottom below low tide levels.
In conjunction with this exhibit, a book of salmon recipes was compiled for sale in the Museum Shop.
The main components of this major exhibit were continued through 2004, using half the exhibit space.
