Canadian Museum of Nature Brings the Arctic to Ottawa

Photos by Kat Walcott

If you've always wanted to visit the Arctic, but it’s just too far or too cold for you, fear not! Yesterday the Canadian Museum of Nature’s newest permanent exhibit, the Canada Goose Arctic Gallery, officially opened its doors to the public. This gallery was established in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday and is an amazing homage to Canada’s Arctic, which takes up 40% of the country’s land mass but it is often forgotten and not celebrated.

Located on the fourth floor of the museum, the Arctic Gallery showcases a perfect balance of the Arctic’s land characteristics, wildlife and its connection to humans, specifically the various Inuit and Indigenous communities who make up the majority of the people who call the Arctic home.

Canadian Museum of Nature president and CEO Meg Beckel summarized her hopes for the new gallery as being, “to transform people’s understanding of the Arctic and to create a space that will expose visitors to this important part of our country.”

The gallery achieves this as it captivates you as soon as you walk through the doors. Upon entering the exhibit, guests are greeted by a gorgeous multimedia art piece entitled Beyond Ice–a stunning audio-visual piece done in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada which consists of moving images and animations projected onto large slabs of real ice. Guests are even invited to walk between the slabs and touch the ice-cold piece, making this artwork transport you to the Arctic through not only sight and sound, but also through touch.

Another highlight of the gallery is the emphasis on Inuit art work, culture, history and their deep connection to the Arctic–where they have lived for thousands of years and where many continue to live to this day. Members of Inuit and Indigenous communities played a key role in developing the gallery. Caitlyn Baikie, an Inuk member of the exhibit’s advisory committee, explains why she felt it was important to be part of the gallery’s creation, even though museums have historically had a negative relationship with indigenous groups, saying, “It’s important for the people who live on that land and own that land to have input because it’s an opportunity to tell our story.”

The large, seven-wall mural which spans throughout the centre of the gallery, created by Inuk artist Nancy Saunders, does just that. Titled Ilurqusivut (Our Ways), the mural tells the story of Inuk life in the Arctic through the use of both colourful, abstract shapes, which perhaps represent ice crystals, and black and white life-like depictions such as an Inuk hunter in traditional attire and Arctic wildlife like caribou, seals and plants.

The gallery is also home to various animal and plant specimens, showing how diverse the Arctic’s wildlife is. Some of the specimens were veterans of the museum having previously been housed in other galleries, such as the polar bear and arctic hares which were previously in the Mammal Gallery, but many of the specimens are new including the live Arctic cod housed in one of the gallery’s two aquariums.

The Canada Goose Arctic Gallery is the perfect gift to Canada for its 150th, showcasing another side of this country’s breathtaking culture and landscape. For additional details about the exhibit and a list of upcoming Arctic-related educational activities and events, check out the official Canada Goose Arctic Gallery website.