Sea of Islands

“This book is a wonderfully collaborative study that explores how this vast collection at MOA has evolved, and draws focus to the many stories contained within.” —Dr. Susan E. Parker, UBC University Librarian, citation for 2026 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia “By foregrounding Indigenous voices and lived relationships, the book demonstrates how collections can bring together the past, present, and future. The voyage traced in Sea of Islands does not lead backward into a closed past, but forward—toward renewed relationships, shared responsibilities, and futures still in the making.” —Roberta Colombo Dougoud, Pacific Arts: The Journal of the Pacific Arts Association “[T]he book is a rich and diverse guide to the objects collected and held in stewardship in the MOA, but also makes connections to the contemporary work of Pacific artists. It is an inspiration for all museums with Oceania collections.” —Oceanic Art Society Journal “Sea of Islands is a wonderful, thought-provoking book. The UBC Museum of Anthropology is known for its Northwest Coast collection, but Carol Mayer invites us to raise our eyes to a more distant horizon. She asks us to look at and think about the cultural record of the wider Pacific, that vast ocean dotted with islands.” —Robin Fisher, The British Columbia Review