First Peoples of Canada

First Peoples of Canada offers readers a rare opportunity to experience a celebrated exhibition that has toured the world, yet has never been shown in Canada. This beautifully designed, full-colour book presents a collection of 150 archaeological and ethnographic objects produced by Canada’s First Peoples – including some that are roughly 12,000 years old – that represent spectacular expressions of creativity and ingenuity.   

Curators Jean-Luc Pilon and Nicholette Prince sought out pieces held by the Canadian Museum of Civilization that could be considered “masterworks” based on their aesthetic qualities, symbolic value, or the skills and raw materials used in manufacturing them. These unique and priceless artifacts embody the rich diversity of skills and materials used by Canadian Inuit, First Nations, and MÉtis in both ancient and modern times.

First Peoples of Canada is full of insights not only on the pieces themselves, but also on the cultures that produced them and the geography of this vast land. Readers will come away from this book with a renewed appreciation of the lifestyles and achievements of Canada’s original inhabitants.

This collection focuses on items made by people in four regions across Canada: the farmers of the Great Lakes, the hunters and warriors of the Great Plains, the wealthy Salmon People of costal British Columbia, and the people of Canada's harshest environments, the Arctic and Boreal Forest.

Jean-Luc Pilon is Curator of Ontario Archaeology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University.

Nicholette Prince is Curator of Plateau Ethnology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and is currently on leave from her doctoral programme in the Institute of Cultural Studies in Literature, Art, and Culture, degree in Cultural Mediations at Carleton University. She was the inaugural Executive Director of the Nisga’a Museum in British Columbia.