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Exhibit bridges coastal cultures

Students from two schools meet and share experiences
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Joseph Jack / The Northern View Photography, driftwood and sound come together to tell the story of Site Unseen: Mural of Merging Voices. The exhibit runs until the end of June.

Students from two coastal communities utilized curiosity, social media and a desire to build cultural bridges in a new exhibit currently on display at the Museum of Northern B.C.

“Site Unseen: Mural of Merging Voices” is a multimedia exhibit that is the end result of a year-long project that brought together students from West Vancouver Secondary School and Hartley Bay Elementary School in a unique project spearheaded by teacher Jackie Wong.

“It [the project] allowed students to gain a true understanding and appreciation for one another,” Wong said, “their differences and their commonalities as teenagers.”

Students spent time visiting each other’s communities, experiencing the cultures and throughout maintained constant communication via social media (Instagram and Snapchat.)

“156 people and no roads,” Wong said of Hartley Bay, a community she first visited in 1995, “but they have plentiful technology.”

The exhibit mixes photography, painted driftwood and audio to capture the experience of the students meeting and sharing with one another. A message written by artist Cori Creed outside the exhibit discusses the significance of collecting driftwood as a shared experience.

“While Hartley Bay and West Vancouver are very different communities, they both border and share an ocean,” it reads. “The experience of collecting driftwood provided an opportunity for the students to visit each other’s shore.”

The audio which accompanies the exhibit captures the creative experience, voices and laughter of the students involved and according to Wong, that experience was most important.

“The most significant thing about the whole project was the process that led to the end work,” she said. “It was way more meaningful than the result.”

“It enlightened my students of West Van into breaking myths and stereotypes of First Nations people,” she said, adding that all of the students were pleasantly surprised during community visits.

Cam Hill, principal of the Hartley Bay also praised the experience of the students leaving their home communities as a way to learn.

“It was really gratifying in the sense that as a teacher, you’re wanting students and youth to expand their horizons,” he said.

“For them to be able to get out and see the world, even if it is the same province, is a far cry and very different from what we experience in Hartley Bay.”

Hill added that the interaction between two different cultures, a remote community and the largest city in B.C., was a great experience for his students.

“It was incredible,” he said. “As a teacher, that’s what make it worthwhile.”

The plaque outside the exhibit encourages viewers to, like the students involved, seek out different perspectives, gain understanding and acceptance and gift your neighbours with friendship and acceptance.

Site Unseen runs until the end of June at the Museum of Northern B.C.