Jut-ke-Nay Hazel Wilson’s expansive series of Haida History Robes will be featured in an exhibition this summer at the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology. Entitled I Use My Haida Eyes: The History Robes of Jut-ke-Nay Hazel Wilson, the exhibition will feature 50 works from the late Haida artist’s epic series of painted and appliquéd robes. Based on the historic form of the ceremonial robe, or button blanket, Wilson’s images present a modern retelling of Haida history in the age of colonization. Produced two decades ago, the majority of the robes have never been shown publicly, making this the first time that Wilson’s vision for her masterwork will be fully realized.
“This series was Wilson’s largest work, and it was the one that mattered to her the most,” said MSG owner and director Robert Kardosh. “She wanted to retell 300 years of Haida resilience in the face of European and settler invasion. She would be immeasurably happy to see this exhibition happening and to see her work and stories finally being shared with the public.”
Wilson made the vast series—her last—in the final decade of her life. In order to confront the issues that she deemed important, she had to reimagine the coastal ceremonial robe, transforming it from an ancestral heraldic device into a pictorial medium suitable for her narrative task. The robes she created illustrate a mixture of stories Wilson heard from relatives when she was growing up on Haida Gwaii and her own personal experiences with the forces of assimilation and the assault on Haida traditions, lands and ways of beings.
The exhibition is being curated by Jordan Wilson, the MOA’s newly appointed Curator of Pacific Northwest and Contemporary Indigenous Art. I Use My Haida Eyes: The History Robes of Jut-ke-Nay Hazel Wilson will open at the MOA May 14, 2026 and will continue until October 12, 2026.
