Mouse Woman drawing by Luke J. Parnell
The Beat
A monthly newsletter about the art of
First Nations on Canada’s West Coast
This is the thirty-seventh issue of The Beat, a free, independent newsletter that brings you up-to-date on the art, artists and events of the First Nations on Canada’s Pacific Coast.
We respectfully acknowledge the Coast Salish Peoples, on whose traditional territories we live and work, and all the First Nations of the Pacific coast.
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Edenshaw Family Members at MOA
Photo: Ann Cameron
A spectacular event marked the opening of the exhibition Signed Without Signature: Works by Charles and Isabella Edenshaw at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver on November 25 2010. Over one hundred descendants of the Haida master artists gathered to honour their ancestors with a magnificent procession.
Current Chief Edenshaw, James Hart, distributes eagle down
Photo Ann Cameron
The Edenshaw exhibition will be at the O’Brian Gallery at MOA through September 30 2011. It provides a very rare opportunity to view many works together by these major artists; many of the pieces are loaned from private collections and seldom seen in public.
In the course of his extensive research on Charles Edenshaw, MOA curator Bill McLennan has developed a useful method to record in two dimensions the complex engraved drawings on the silver bracelets created by the Haida artist. Enlarged photographs of these images are part of the exhibitions and permit a more intense examination of the distinctive style of the artist. A video clip explaining the scanning method is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26u6Aykqqi8
A sculpture created in the late 1800’s by Kwakwaka’wakw artist Chief Charles James Yaakuttas or Yakuglas is currently in an exhibition in Switzerland. The Bodmeriana Library in Geneva has organized Du Corps aux Etoiles, showing until January 30 2011, on the theme of ancient medicine. Charlie James’ sculpture, lent from a private collection, is considered “of shamanic significance”.
See http://www.fondationbodmer.org/
The exhibition Time Warp: Contemporary Textiles of the Northwest Coast continues at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in Vancouver until January 16 2011. It has been exceptionally well-attended and the gallery is exploring the possibility of touring the exhibition.
Left: William White, Thunderbird Apron2006
Collection: Chief William Wasden Jr. Waxawidi
Photo: Ken Nagai
Right: Artist William White
Photo: Ann Seymour
On Saturday December 4 2010, noted Tsimshian weaver and teacher William White will present a program Gender and Weaving, from 1 to 2:30 pm. White challenges the gender bias of traditional attitudes to weaving. See http://www.billreidgallery.ca
On Vancouver Island, the city of Parksville is unveiling a public sculpture by Connie Watts on December 12 2010. Watts, whose ancestry is Nuu-chah-nulth, Gitxsan, and Kwakwaka’wakw, is the creator of one of the favourite sculptures in Vancouver International Airport Hetux, the airborne thunderbird at the Canadian Arrivals area.
The new 14-foot sculpture is The Kinship of Play, and depicts a bear, raven and seal.
At the same time, an exhibition of Watts’ work, Playing with Form & Time, pieces including carvings, glass work, ink drawings, prints, and sculptures, is being held until December 17 at the McMillan Art Centre in Parksville. See http://www.conniewatts.com
The Museum of Vancouver has recently participated in two repatriations of cultural material: a flax cloak to the New Zealand Wairoa Museum of the Maori people, and, locally, the return of a stone sculpture to the Sechelt First Nation on the peninsula north of Vancouver.
Photo: Museum of Vancouver blog, Joan Seidl
This is the MOV’s first major repatriation to Canada’s First Nations. The sculpture was purchased by the Museum in 1926. Now the Sechelt nation will display the ancient work, Our Grieving Mother, at its own museum, the Tems Swiya Museum, at 5555 Sunshine Coast Highway. The traditional story memorialized by the sculpture is that a young boy encountered invaders from a distant tribe who killed the boy. The alarm was raised and the warriors fled the settlement. The anguished mother holds the child’s body.
Artist Brian Jungen is creating new sculptural works at the Catriona Jeffries Gallery in Vancouver. The works will be created over a two-month “progression of exhibition making.” The gallery will be closed for two “installation periods”, November 30 to December 5 2010, and again from December 20 to January 3 2011. In late November the gallery had several chest freezers with animal skins stretched in wooden frames atop them. Photographs of the emerging works can be viewed at:
The Haida Heritage Centre and Museum recently celebrated four major commissions, works by artists Robert and Reginald Davidson, James Hart and Guujaw. The masks were presented to the community and danced in ceremony for the first time at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Athlii Gwaii (the successful logging blockade on Lyell Island in the Haida Gwaii).
This dancing with the masks confirms their authenticity for the community and the bringing to life of the works. The masks represent oral histories of events as far back as the beginning of the world:
Jilakuns, Creek Woman, the common ancestress of Eagle clans on Haida Gwaii and the head of all Creek Women on Haida Gwaii, who own and beckon the fish back each year.
Suulu Jaad, Foam Woman, common ancestress of Raven clans of Haida Gwaii
Kalgah Jaad, Ice Woman, who led many of the Haida people away from the cold during the Ice Age, and back home when it warmed again.
Nang Kilsdlas, He Whose Voice is Obeyed, is a transformation mask depicting Raven in the form of a natural raven, which opens to reveal Raven as a baby, Nang Kilsdlas.
SGuuluu Jaad
Photo: Jack Litrell, Courtesy Haida Laas News & Journal
A Haida traditional dance group recently travelled to seven cities across Canada with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, in partnership with Parks Canada and the Council of the Haida Nation. This Dare to Be Deep tour celebrated the Federal and Provincial governments joining the Haida Nation in the establishment of Gwaii Haanas as a National Marine Conservation area, and advocated the cause of healthy oceans.
Designated a Haida Heritage Site by the Council of the Haida Nation and a National Marine Conservation Area by the Canadian governments, Gwaii Haanas is the only area on our planet officially protected from seafloor to mountain top.
Highlights from this trip can be found at http://cpaws.org/news/events/daretobedeep.php
The award-winning Songs of the Haida Gwaii CD’s in box sets are available at discounted prices during the month of December. The unique CD’s of traditional Haida music include both re-mastered historical recordings and beautiful modern performances of old Haida songs. For details see
http://www.haidagwaiisingers.ca
Haida artist Robert Davidson’s book Four Decades: An Innocent Gesture published to commemorate the pole raising at Old Massett in 1969 (See The Beat September 2009) can be purchased for $27, 40% off the regular price. See http://robertdavidson.ca
Work by Tseshaht artist and cultural leader George Clutesi (1905-1988) is part of an exhibit at the Alberni Valley Museum. The Tseshaht winter village in Hisheenqu’as Living Together: Alberni and the Birth of the Forest Industry will include two Clutesi paintings on loan from the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver until 2011. For more about the Port Alberni museum, see http://www.alberniheritage.com/
George Clutesi information is at http://www.tseshaht.com
under Tradition & History>Influential Figures.
In the issue of The Beat May 2009 an article described the Duncan Cottage Museum in Metlakatla Alaska, and its renewal under the direction of Director/Curator Miquel Icesis Askren. This summer marked a turning point for the small museum, once the home of a controversial Christian minister from England. During this last year a grant-supported specialist staff and intern, have created a digital catalogue and properly stored the objects in the collection. Public programs were initiated. After four years of preparation, the museum was opened to the public on August 3 2010. On August 7, says Askren, “we danced Tsimshian dances inside our museum for the first time in its history. This event marked our success in turning the Duncan Cottage Museum, which was once considered the center of our cultural oppression, into a place of healing and growth that is now truly a home for our culture.”
The Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre has re-opened with new exhibits, tours and family-friendly activities. Winter hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5 pm. Tuesday is admission by donation.
The new show, until March 31 2011, is The Squamish Community: Our People and Places, the first collaboration between the Squamish nation elders and the North Vancouver Museums and Archives. For information on the centre and its drum creation workshop on December 5, see http://www.slcc.ca/
Northwest Coast Native: Artists, Galleries, Museums, Attractions, Parks, Tours has been published by Adventure Guides Inc. It is a 249-page mix of tourism information and advertising on the theme of First Nations sites and products in British Columbia. For more information see http://www.adventureguides.biz
The Ahtsik Native Art Gallery in Port Alberni has a show Ancient Sounds of the Northwest Coast until February 6 2011. The works displayed include rattles, drums, whistles and clappers, all traditionally used to make sounds in the dramatic ceremonies of the west coast First Nations. Participating artists include Nuu-chah-nulths Gordon and Wayne Dick, and Patrick Amos; Haidas Gary Minaker-Russ and Alex Spence; Jorge Lewis (Coast Salish); Erich Glendale, Raymond Shaw and Chris Cook III of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation; and Ray Sim and Dorothy Jarvis of the Tsimshian nation.
On Friday, December 3 2010 the Lattimer Gallery is inviting the public to a Holiday Open House from 5 to 8 pm at the gallery at 1590 West 2nd Avenue in Vancouver. A silent auction featuring a wide range of bent boxes and decorated by Northwest coast First Nations artists is being held from November 27 to December 10. The auction will benefit the Aboriginal Health program at the BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre.
For more information call the gallery at 604 732 4556, or see
http://www.lattimergallery.com
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Comments, news and new subscribers to this free newsletter are welcomed. Please write to: editor@coastalartbeat.ca Past issues are available at our website http://www.coastalartbeat.ca
Thank you to David Dumaresq, Martine Reid, Miquel Icesis Askren, Nika Collison, Dr. S. W. A. Gunn, Bill McLennan, Paula Fairweather and many others for your assistance. The Beat is an independent, not-for-profit project written and published in Vancouver Canada by Ann Cameron.
Copyright 2010 Ann Cameron.