Local Journalism Initiative
By Sam Laskaris, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com
A former professional snowboarder has her new passion on display in a solo exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology, located on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver.
Jaad Kuujus (Meghann O’Brien), Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw and Irish, was introduced to weaving in 2010, the same year she stopped competing professionally and gave up working in commercial fishing.
The exhibit titled Jaad Kuujus: Everyone Says I Look Like My Mother is having its world premiere and will run to March 29, 2026. The exhibit features several weavings, including intricately hand-woven ceremonial regalia, as well as some digitally rendered reproductions.
“This exhibition is an expression of respect and love towards my ancestors and their ways of making, while looking forward to how new technologies can be used to represent our stories.”
Jaad Kuujus (Meghann O’Brien)
A common theme in the exhibit is the use of mountain goat wool, a material that holds great significance to many Northwest Coast communities.
“This exhibition is an expression of respect and love towards my ancestors and their ways of making, while looking forward to how new technologies can be used to represent our stories,” said the member of We Wai Kai Nation in B.C.
Her weaving began because of her interest in harvesting wild plants.
“At the time I was like fairly disconnected from culture, but was really passionate about harvesting wild plants, so berries, berry picking,” she said. “And I heard about the way that the ancestral weavers picked berries, which was like with these baskets that could be worn from the forehead and allowing both the hands to be free.
“It totally captivated my imagination and interest. And I was really motivated to create that as an experience for myself.”
And she hasn’t looked back.
“Once I started weaving, that kind of really took over my life in a way,” she said.
Jaad Kuujus was introduced to weaving as she received a Canada Arts Council grant to learn how to spin mountain goat wool, the original fibre that was utilized by First Nations people on the west coast. She said mountain goat wool is rather inaccessible and a rarity in part because there’s not a lot of hunters around.
“When I was working with it, I really wanted to spin enough wool to do a project, probably a more traditional one was what I had on my mind at the start. And I think I found so many layers of depth and richness. And it just kind of was like mind-blowing to me.”
Jaad Kuujus (Meghann O’Brien)
“It’s a protected species as well,” she said. “So, when that opportunity came, I had the full year just to learn the spinning techniques.”
Jaad Kuujus’s had not envisioned that learning to work with the wool would end up consuming her.
“When I was working with it, I really wanted to spin enough wool to do a project, probably a more traditional one was what I had on my mind at the start,” she said. “And I think I found so many layers of depth and richness. And it just kind of was like mind-blowing to me.”
Jaad Kuujus has had her works displayed in a couple of other smaller solo exhibits before.
“This definitely feels more significant, I think, just because of the prominence of the Museum of Anthropology,” she said.
The museum is highly regarded around the world for its collections, research, teaching, public programs and community connections. It is also Canada’s largest teaching museum.
Jaad Kuujus has travelled extensively because of her weaving career, at times to demonstrate and also to conduct lectures on her skills.
“I did that for a while,” she said. “It has slowed down the last three years because I’ve been raising my daughter. Before that, it’s not like I planned it, but every year I just ended up with an artist residency somewhere in the world. I think it was seven years in a row that that happened. So, that was unexpected. The opportunity to travel was pretty unexpected.”
For three consecutive years Jaad Kuujus was part of an artist-in-residence program in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She also had stints with programs in Germany, Switzerland and in Banff, Alberta.
“Sometimes it was a residency program that I applied to, other times it was an invitation,” she said.
Though her exhibit is named after her “Everyone Says I Look Like My Mother” T-shirt woven out of mountain goat wool, Jaad Kuujus said that is not necessarily her favourite piece.
The one she favours is a digital representation titled “Wrapped in the Cloud”.
“Possibly the one that I’m gravitating to most now is this kind of a purple version,” she said. “It’s like pink and blue. It’s woven out of silk.”
This digitally animated piece is from an original called “Sky Blanket”, which the artist wove between 2012 and 2014.
More information on the exhibit is available at https://moa.ubc.ca/exhibition/jaad-kuujus/
