Spirit & Religion
Ground-breaking Vodou Exhibition Coming to Canada
- Sunday, April 08, 2012 6:43 PM
OTTAWA, Canada (defend.ht) - An exhibition containing about 300 of Haiti’s most precious Vodou artifacts is coming to the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau this fall after being in Museums in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Titled Vodou: A Way of Life, the exhibition contains doll-like figures, sculptures, rattles, baroque mirrors that act as conduits to the spirit world and oddly-shaped “pakes” that are containers of magic ingredients. (In Haiti, “Voodoo” is usually spelled “Vodou.”)
This collection of artifacts, including many objects never before seen outside Haiti, has been touring Europe since 2008 with stops in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
“I saw the show in Amsterdam a few years ago and recommended it come here,” Sheldon Posen, folklore curator at the Museum of Civilization, said in an email to the Canada.com. “The Vodou objects are among the most powerful I have ever seen in a museum.”
Mark O’Neill, Civilization’s director, calls the Voodoo exhibition “incredible.” The museum’s website says visitors will “come away transformed.”
Posen says the exhibition explains the mysterious, often maligned religion for outsiders in a logical, non-sensationalist way.
“It tells how Vodou fits into Haitian history, explains the structure of the religion — the lwa (spirits) and their powers — and describes worship and ritual, debunking the Hollywood version of the religion along the way,” adds Posen.
