Nisga'a Museum

With a design inspired by traditional Nisga’a longhouses, feast dishes, and canoes, the 929-square-metre museum opened in Laxgalts’ap, 150 kilometres northwest of Terrace, in the spring of 2011. The heart of the Nisga’a Museum is the Ancestors’ Collection which contains a stunning array of exquisitely carved masks, bentwood boxes, headdresses, soul catchers, and other works of art acquired from Nisga’a people during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many Nisga’a possessions were mistaken as idols and destroyed by missionaries who established themselves along the Nass River. Others were given away or sold to private individuals or museum collectors.