British ColumbiaAmelia Rea’s NDN Giver runs until Feb. 22 at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver.Amelia Rea’s NDN Giver runs until Feb. 22 at the Bill Reid Gallery in VancouverCBC News · Posted: Oct 04, 2025 10:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: October 43AM by Skil Jaadee White, part of the NDN Giver exhibit at the Bill Reid Gallery, depicts the end of a potlatch, in the early hours of the morning. (Skil Jaadee White/Submitted by Bill Reid Gallery)While visiting her auntie and uncle, Amelia Rea paused and stared into a kitchen cabinet overflowing with mugs gifted over the years at potlatches. Each mug, she said, was filled with family history: marriages celebrated, alliances formed and truths spoken. “[The mugs are] so much more than just vessels for tea or coffee,” she said. Now, they’re a focal point for her first solo exhibition at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in downtown Vancouver. Some of the mugs on display at the Bill Reid Gallery for NDN Giver. (Aliya Boubard)In NDN Giver, Rea, a gallery assistant curator, artist and scholar, explores the tradition of gifts at potlatch — a ceremony marking important occasions and milestones. Rea, a member of the Tsiits Git’anee clan of the Haida Nation, named the exhibit NDN Giver as a way to reclaim a racist, colonial term rooted in misunderstanding about the way Indigenous people give. “By accepting that gift at [a] potlatch, they accepted a very big responsibility of carrying forth what took place at that potlatch,” Rea explained. The exhibit showcases items that are often given at potlatches, including that collection of mugs, all memorializing specific events. “We’re going to do a recreation of the shelf, yeah … and it’ll be the opening piece in the show,” Rea said ahead of the launch. Another common gift to receive at potlatch is an art print with a family crest or name, Rea said. A large gallery wall showcases some of the prints she and her family have received over the years. A memorial print for Sandlanee by Richard Matthews. This print and others received at potlatch ceremonies are featured in the NDN Giver exhibit at the Bill Reid Gallery, on now through Feb. 22, 2026. (Aliya Boubard)”This one over here is a raven,” she said as she pointed at the collection. “This was done by one of my late grandfathers and it was given at his memorial potlatch earlier this year. This one is from the memorial potlatch for my great, great grandmother and was done by one of my grandmother’s brothers for that potlatch.”Of course, being an art gallery, the exhibit also features art by fellow northwest coast Indigenous artists, including K.C. Hall, Glathba Charlie Brown and Skil Jaadee White, the latter of whom has painted a piece depicting the end of a potlatch late at night, with various gifts and foods on display — including oolichan grease and Sailor Boy Pilot Bread, “which is like gold on Haida Gwaii,” Rea said.A potlatch gift created by K.C. Hall and Glathba Charlie Brown, featured in NDN Giver. (Charlie Brown)Rea felt a lot of pressure putting together an exhibition so personal and meaningful to her and her community. “How do I show something so sacred and so profound and something so meaningful to us in a way that is respectful to my community and to the nations up and down the coast that we’re speaking about in the show?” she said. She spent a lot of time calling her mom and her aunties asking for guidance, and looked to family and friends for their take on what kinds of things she should focus on for the show. But feeling anxious about getting the exhibit just right was a good thing, she said. “I wouldn’t have felt anxious and nervous about it if I wasn’t doing the right thing and if I didn’t believe in it and if I didn’t love and trust my community fully.”NDN Giver runs at the Bill Reid Gallery until Feb. 22, 2026.With files from Jeremy Ratt
B.C. gallery exhibition explores practice of gifting at potlatch ceremonies
