Our images from the First Nations exhibition. In the Garden Gallery of the Musée du quai Branly, the visit begins with a transformation mask with outstretched wings and a tall heraldic pole made of cedar. The large red and black house facade paintings, the fringed ceremonial capes, and the masks with cast shadows tell of clans, ancestors, and spirit animals. The exhibition concludes with contemporary creations, proof that this art of the American Northwest remains very much alive.

A society without agriculture or writing, yet sedentary, numerous, hierarchical. Along eight thousand eight hundred kilometers of coastline, the First Nations of the American Northwest have built, in an extraordinary world made of abundant cedar forests, societies of great cultural, spiritual and political richness. Through the presentation of this tangible and intangible heritage, the Musée du quai Branly reveals an art that reads like a sacred language: a heraldic pole, a house, a mask, a garment tell us who descends from whom, which stories belong to which family, which rights are exercised and on what. These are sculpted archives, and they adhere to strict symbolic and stylistic rules.

This language tells of a world of wondrous beings and spirit animals, where Raven reigns as creator and ancestor of the clans. These clans form a mosaic where lineage is most often traced through women, and where rights, knowledge, and obligations connect communities across villages. This heritage is presented in collaboration with the Haida Gwaii Museum, in Canada, where these traditions are still practiced. And they have already influenced the thinking of artists and anthropologists: Lévi-Strauss owes them part of his anthropology, André Breton and Max Ernst part of their surrealism.

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First Nations Exhibition at the Quai Branly Museum: The Essentials

• Where? At the Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Museum, Jardin Gallery, 37 Quai Branly (Paris 7th arrondissement).
• When? From September 29, 2026 to January 17, 2027, Tuesday to Sunday from 10:30 am to 7 pm, late opening on Thursdays until 10 pm, closed on Mondays.
• What? The arts of the First Nations of the American Northwest, along nearly 1,800 km of coastline and some forty languages: masts Heraldry (totems), house facade paintings, masks, ceremonial capes, everyday objects, and contemporary creations.
• How much? Museum admission: €14, reduced rate €11; booking a time slot guarantees entry.
• Curators: Steve Bourget, Head of the Americas Collections at the Museum, with Nika Collison, Director of the Haida Gwaii Museum (Canada); Set design by Atelier Maciej Fiszer.

MUSÉE DU QUAI BRANLY - JACQUES CHIRAC
Until January 17, 2027
37 quai Branly, 75007 - Metro: Iéna (Line 9)
Open daily except Mondays, 10:30 a.m.–7 p.m., Thursdays until 10 p.m.
Admission: €14 - Reduced rate: €11