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Digital pathways into the University Art Collections - a new collection

May 08, 2026

Woven basket
Artist once known, Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin), Imbricated Burden Basket, woven bear grass and cherry bark, U981.2.86. Gift of Commander and Mrs. A.J. Tullis to the University of Victoria Department of Anthropology, transferred to the University Art Collections in 1981. Photograph by Anahita Ranjbar.

Woven Legacies is a new digital collection of historical and contemporary baskets made by Indigenous artists and currently in the care of the University Art Collections (UAC). This featured collection highlights 20 baskets from Indigenous communities across Turtle Island (known also as Canada), with a primary focus on works made by Nuu-chah-nulth and Interior Salish weavers.

The collection and associated community-based research stem from the 2019 exhibition We Carry Our Ancestors: Cedar, Baskets, and Our Relationships with the Land curated by Lorilee Wastasecoot, UAC Curator of Indigenous Art and Engagement. The exhibition honoured the legacy, artistry, and resilience of historical and contemporary basket weavers who “carried their cultures forward for future generations.”

We Carry Our Ancestors sought to connect baskets with their community of origin and memorialize the weavers whose names were once known. In continuation of this work, Woven Legacies digitally activates these belongings in the University Art Collections. It presents the community-based work carried out to identify several of the makers and communities associated with these belongings and foreground the potential of these belongings for further research, teaching and engagement. To learn more, browse the collection and select individual basket pages for further details.

Watch for the upcoming Spotlight exhibition coming later this year.

This project was supported by the UVic Libraries and Kula: Library Futures Seed Fund.

UAC project team members: Mina Guan, Anahita Ranjbar, Caroline Riedel, Teresa Sammut, and Lorilee Wastasecoot.