Eric B.
Yelp
The Royal BC Museum is located within steps of Victoria's Inner Harbour (between the Fairmont Empress and the Legislative Assembly Buildings) and was well worth the price of Gayle and my admission. The Museum anchors the Royal BC Museum Cultural Precinct, a surrounding area with historical sites and monuments, including Thunderbird Park and the The Netherlands Carillon (the largest in Canada with 62 bells that toll for thee).
The Museum proper includes three permanent Galleries (Natural History, Modern History, and First Peoples) and an IMAX Theatre. It also hosts touring exhibitions from around the world. In recent years, these included exhibitions on the RMS Titanic, Leonardo da Vinci, Egyptian artifacts, and Genghis Khan. Elizabeth II opens on June 1st and I'm sorry we missed it.
The Dinosaurs! exhibit is very Kid friendly (for all ages) and I was pleasantly surprised on how much I enjoyed seeing a bunch of old bones come to life in various multi-media ways. That includes of course their modern successors (birds, lizards, etc.). We then took a swing through the Natural History portion as of course we could not miss the big Woolly Mammoth! The newer Climate Change section was an added bonus. The only section we didn't spend a lot of time in was the Modern History area. It's not the exhibits here weren't interesting, rather in our ~2-3 hour visit (including Thunderbird Park and the other outside stuff), some things got prioritized away until another time.
However, the "Rock Star" of our visit to the Royal BC Museum was the First Peoples Section. The exhibits are stunning in their depiction of what First Nations life was like before and after the Europeans arrived. Particularly notable was the full size supply canoe, various Totem Poles, a goose bumps inducing Spirit Cave, the various masks and a native long house. This exhibit is apparently not without controversy as the gallery has been criticized by indigenous scholars for its portrayal of First Nations people, and its use of controversial images and film from Edward Curtis. History is written by the Victor?
Gayle and I both separately commented that this exhibit reminded us of the Museu À Descoberta do Novo Mundo in Belmonte Portugal. That museum depicts the colonization of the native peoples of Brazil by Portugal and the associated and controversial cultural consequences. We spent most of our time here, and I wasn't ready to leave until I'd seen a few things over again. And next time I'd love to share this place with my son.
P.S. - The Gift Shop downstairs is impressive in it's size and selection.