Exhibition: Indigenous Symbols and Signifiers

Plan your visit

Dates: September 18 – October 9, 2025
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, from 12 – 4 PM

Location: Hatch Art Gallery, Floor 2, AMS Nest
6133 University Boulevard, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1

Free admission

About the exhibition

What symbols from your culture represent belonging? Six Indigenous UBC students were invited to visually represent cultural symbols that hold deep meaning in their identities, histories, and traditional teachings.

The Faculty of Arts and the First Nations House of Learning are honoured to showcase and celebrate these student artists as knowledge-keepers. From traditional beadwork and Formline Design to pictographs, native plants, and the language of ceremony, each artist connects deeply to their Indigenous heritage and lands through artistic practice.

Whether honouring grandparents through images of eagles and grizzlies, teaching children the foundation of ovoids, or gathering around a kitchen table to create beadwork, these works express the intergenerational resilience and vibrancy of Indigenous Nations across the country.

The Indigenous Symbols and Signifiers initiative was made possible by the UBC Strategic Equity and Anti-Racism Enhancement Fund.

Featured artists

• Jazmine Andrew — BA’27 First Nations and Indigenous Studies, St̓át̓imc from the Lil̓wat Nation

• Brittney Townrow — PhD’25 Curriculum Studies, Heiltsuk First Nation

• Robyn Adams — M.Arch + MLA’25 School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Red River Métis

• Riannon Wesley — BA’26 First Nations and Endangered Languages Major, Anthropology Minor, Nlaka’pamux and Tsimshian First Nations

• Koyah Morgan-Banke — BSc’27 Neuroscience Major, t̓uk̓ʷaaʔatḥ (“Toquaht”) First Nation

• Kineena Kang — BA’25 Psychology, Anishininiimowin First Nation