A striking 35-foot-long sturgeon harpoon anchors this exhibition at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. Created by Morgan Guerin, a fisheries officer and elected councillor for the Musqueam First Nation, the harpoon is the result of deep engagement with Musqueam oral history, knowledge, and lived experience. Drawing on teachings passed down through generations, Guerin’s work brings ancestral fishing technologies into the present.
The Sturgeon Harpoon Knowledge Web is a collaborative exhibition between the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and the Musqueam First Nation. It explores the rich interconnectedness of nature, culture, language, and technology, showing how knowledge is formed through relationships with land, water, and community.
More than a historical artifact, the harpoon represents a living system of knowledge. The ongoing exhibition acts as an extension and evolution of oral history, honouring Musqueam ways of knowing while inviting the wider public to engage with Indigenous science, innovation, and stewardship. Through this work, the exhibition highlights how traditional knowledge continues to inform contemporary practices and future generations.
According to the Musqueam First Nation, “to Musqueam, a sturgeon is more than simply a sturgeon. It’s an entry point to aspects of language, territory, health, technology, and our society, and the respect and responsibilities that accompany them. It is part of a larger web of mutually dependent knowledge. When a link in this web is broken, it’s a loss to the whole web of knowledge and to our relationships.”
Innovation, integrity, impact and inspiration exemplify the ways in which the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and the Musqueam First Nation worked closely together, ensuring that an authentic understanding of the present-day of this way of knowing places it steadfastly in the future.