Royal B.C. Museum interim CEO acknowledges there’s more to do on diversity, reconciliation

The newly-appointed interim CEO of the Royal B.C. Museum says there are large-scale efforts underway at the institution to address diversity and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

Ry Moran is the museum’s fourth CEO since 2021, when then-CEO Jack Lohman stepped down after allegations of racism from Indigenous staff.

A subsequent report from the museum found that Indigenous and racialized staff at the Victoria museum were subject to discriminatory behaviour.

The museum went on to close exhibits that furthered colonial narratives. The First Peoples Gallery at the museum remains closed to this day.

“The hard work starts when you realize that something needs to change,” Moran told CBC News of the efforts to address racism.

“You know, it's actually the change and leaning into that change and doing it over and over again, even when it seems to falter or … go off the rails a little bit, that is of critical importance.”

While the museum is actively constructing a new archive and research building in nearby Colwood, questions continue to swirl around its long-term future in downtown Victoria, B.C., years after the province suspended a controversial $789-million rebuild.

Three weeks into his appointment, Moran acknowledged those issues were among the major ones he has to grapple with at the museum, which drew 620,000 visitors in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

The museum is a Crown corporation, and its 2024-25 annual report showed that it made $12.17 million in revenue from operations that fiscal year.

Repatriation efforts underway

The 2021 report into allegations of racism at the museum was released amid a wider reckoning of race and Indigenous relations across Canada.

It came after Haida Nation member Lucy Bell quit as head of the Royal B.C. Museum’s First Nations department and repatriation program, claiming the institution was home to discrimination, bullying and white privilege.

Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, whose research looks at museums as spaces of belonging in B.C., said the impact of Bell’s resignation was massive for museums and cultural spaces across B.C.

“It was an institution, a public institution that is supposed to be managed … by our government. And so I think that implicates the racist systems within our own government as well,” Sandhra said of the resignation.

Sandhra was skeptical of the museum’s efforts to address the issue since then, especially given the CEO turnover, but she expressed hope that Moran can create capacity for truth-telling.

Moran is of Red River Métis descent, and came to the museum from the University of Victoria after over a decade at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.

He said that reconciliation is the establishment and maintenance of mutually respectful relationships, and said the museum was uniquely placed to explore that space.

The interim CEO added that the closure of the First Peoples Gallery — which he said would reopen in a phased manner starting later this year —was done so that the treasures and stories on display were respectful of original rights and title holders.

“That is actually broadly consistent with a sort of a global movement of resetting respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples — to ensure that, you know, those stories are told in a way that is accurate,” he said.

In addition, the museum’s latest annual report says a number of new staff positions were created to assist in the return of culturally-important items to Indigenous communities.

It says that it is working with over 60 communities to facilitate repatriations.

New archive building

The museum is set to open a publicly-accessible provincial archives, research and collections building in Colwood, west of Victoria, later this year.

Moran says the new space would allow researchers and the general public alike to further their knowledge of B.C.’s rich history.

Still, the long-term future of the museum at its current location is an open question, after a large-scale redesign was scrapped in 2022 following public backlash.

Moran said there would be questions about how the museum fits into the ongoing redevelopment of downtown Victoria.

“I think now that we know that [redesign] project isn't proceeding, it gives us a chance to really reassess again what either … a phased approach or other approaches look like in this space,” he said.