Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto, Ontario
Our primary reason for visiting the Royal Ontario Museum on this occasion was to view the Mayan exhibit since we had visited the site of two of the Mayan ruins (Chichen-Itza and Coba) during a winter vacation in the Yucatan Peninsula. Photography was not permitted at the Mayan Exhibit so I’ve broken the ROM blog into two parts. The first part comments on the Mayan exhibit and this second part shows a few images of the main areas of the Museum.
I enjoy looking at masks and carvings from all over the world and have posted a number of mask images in previous blog entries, most notably in the blog entries for the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec and the UBC Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, B.C. It should come as no surprise then that I spent a bit of time in the ROM section that highlighted masks and carvings from Polynesia and Micronesia.
I find the beadwork on First Nation’s moccasins and mukluks fascinating so always stop and take a look at the different pattern choices. I have a couple of pairs of moccasins that were made for me by a member of the Swamp Cree of Northern Ontario. They made the interesting observation that, for themselves, they only use enough beads to make the outline while ones made for tourists get the filled-in designs. Not sure how true that is or whether or not it is just part of modern-day economizing but it is interesting to think about in terms of how the designs might change depending on the scarcity of beads or the perceived importance or wealth of the recipient.
Leaving the masks of Micronesia and the beadwork of Canada’s First Nations peoples, my next stop was in front of the costumes of European battle such as this Italian Barbut weighing in at 2.5 kg. People complaining about carrying around the weight of a DSLR should consider what it would be like to wear one of these in the field of battle.
There are lots of other interesting items on display at the Museum but I certainly didn’t have the time to photograph everything, but I did try :-).
For more information on what might be happening at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) click here to access their website directly: Royal Ontario Museum website
