Elaine Monds

Elaine is an internationally respected curator, writer and gallery director. She has a unique, international upbringing which informed her compassionate and innovative approach to her work. Throughout her career Elaine supported hundreds of artists and their cultural art forms, notably the revival of Northwest Coast art in the 1980s and more recently with the rebirth of contemporary Coast Salish art in BC. Elaine has been one of BC’s leaders in promoting Indigenous art and artists from the entire Pacific Rim and Canada, establishing the Alcheringa Gallery in Victoria as one of the top Indigenous art galleries in the world. Elaine also established Alcheringa as an international space for cross-cultural experiences, including as a member of the not-for-profit Pacific Peoples Partnership. She led an initiative to link Pacific Indigenous communities with their Canadian First Nations counterparts through reciprocal exchanges between artists from Papua New Guinea and Canada, the USA and the UK. Elaine’s work has been essential to the conservation and promotion of Indigenous culture in BC and beyond.