Mouse Woman drawing by Luke J. Parnell
The Beat
A monthly newsletter about the art of
First Nations on Canada’s West Coast
Welcome to the twenty-eighth 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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The Children’s Village in Vancouver has given commissions for six poles and a longhouse front to Nisga’a artist Michael Dangeli. The Village offers First Nations children needing protection an alternative to foster care among non-First Nations families, and creates an atmosphere of rich cultural pride and learning for these children.
The two 25-foot poles designed by Dangeli tell of adult family and clan creatures who will protect and uplift the boy and girl depicted: the first shows a little girl looking out from a traditional house front, with a Chief/grandfather figure above holding a Raven talking stick and a Wolf adze (the stone blade of the adze is limestone).
The opposite 25-foot pole shows a young boy in a doorway, with a Matriarch figure above who holds a Killer Whale rattle and a dancing feather. She teaches the child to drum and sing. The first pole is surmounted by a Moon, the second by a Sun. The poles are intended as a tribute to the Elders and grandparents who create an atmosphere of love and respect for culture in a community, and the necessary balance between men and women in a society.
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The work is being done in a tent in Hastings Elementary School yard in Vancouver. The schoolchildren there, from diverse cultural backgrounds, can see the progress of the work and have occasional supervised visits to the poles. Dangeli has been assisted by his nephew, apprentice Wade Smith (see photo), Japanese woodcarver Mari Torizane, and Anishnaabe artist Don McIntyre. The poles will be ready by April.
In December, the Nuxalk nation, whose home is in the Bella Coola area of central British Columbia, lost a distinguished artist, Al Cole. Cole is descended from a noble family: his great-grandfather Tlelamin’s longhouse was reproduced for the Great Hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull. Al Cole was especially admired for his fine shamanic rattles, often using imagery related to the shamans among his ancestors. Works of art by Al Cole can be seen on the website of the Petroglyph Gallery in Bella Coola, and at the Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver. See http://www.petroglyphgallery.ca and http://www.spiritwrestler.com
The December 2009 issue of Haida Laas, the news magazine of the Haida nation, tells of the festive reception to the BC’s premier when he announced the official re-naming of the Queen Charlotte Islands as the Haida Gwaii, a name already in current use. An event is being planned where the Haida people will cordially give back the name of Queen Charlotte.
This latest issue also has an article on the tradition of tattooing among the Haida. The Haida Laas is at http://www.haidanation.ca
The exhibition Continuum: Vision and Creativity on the Northwest Coast continues at the Bill Reid Gallery until Sunday, March 28 2010. Kwakwaka’wakw artist Sonny Assu will speak and answer questions about his work on Wednesday January 20 from 5:30 to 7 pm.
Dr. Marie Mauze, an Honourary Director of the Bill Reid Foundation, will speak on Wednesday January 27 2010 from 5:30 to 7 pm, Places and Meanings: The Peculiar Destiny of a Kwakwaka’wakw Headdress. Dr. Mauze is a social anthropologist. Her most recent book is Coming to Shore: Northwest Coast Ethnology, Traditions and Visions, a collaborative project published in 2004 as homage to the late Claude Levi-Strauss.
Special discounts are available to Beyond Eden, a musical play based on the expedition to the Haida Gwaii in 1957 led by the young anthropologist and archaeologist Wilson Duff and his Haida friend, Bill Reid. Beyond Eden is written and composed by Bruce Ruddell, and features John Mann of the band Spirit of the West.
Admission to the Bill Reid Gallery entitles visitors to promotional discounts on the price of tickets. Call Navida at 604 682 3455 x223 for more information. The play Beyond Eden runs at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre from January 16 to February 6 2010. It will open at Theatre Calgary February 16 and run until March 7 2010.
The Bill Reid Gallery is at 639 Hornby Street in Vancouver. See http://www.billreidgallery.ca
On January 16 2010, Presentation House Gallery in North Vancouver is opening an exhibition Laid Over to Cover: Photography and Weaving in the Salishan Landscape. The show presents photographs taken by William Notman Studio of Montreal commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880’s of “previously unrecorded mountain scenery and landscapes, as well as points of contact between aboriginal inhabitants and colonial intruders”. The photographs, as well as prints and etchings and historical examples of weaving by coastal and interior First Nations, are shown with the work of contemporary weavers Melvin Williams of the Lil’wat Nation and Keith Nahanee of the Squamish Nation. The guest curators are David Bellman and Meirion Cynog Evans.
The opening reception is on Saturday January 16. Lectures and discussions with the exhibition curators and practitioners will be held on January 21 and 23 in New Westminster and North Vancouver respectively. Weaving and cedar bark basket weaving workshops will be held in North Vancouver. For more information, see
www.presentationhousegall.com or call 604 986 1351.
A reminder that the world premiere of Marie Clements’ play, The Edward Curtis Project, will run at the Presentation House Theatre at the same location in North Vancouver from January 21 to January 31 2010.
Also at Presentation House Theatre, Spirit Journey will be presented on the 14th, 15th and 16th of February. Spirit Journey presents Kwakwaka'wakw Nation legends, songs, and dances brought to life by the Le-La-La Dancers with dynamic performances and modern technology. Call the theatre for more information or tickets at 604 990 3474.
Backstory: Nuuchaanulth Ceremonial Curtains and the Work of Ki-ke-in will be at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia until March 28 2010. The show features the work of Ron Hamilton (Ki-ke-in), enormous painted curtains suspended as a backdrop to ceremonial events and performances.
An event preceding the exhibition is at 12:30 to 2:30 pm Friday January 8 2010: Raven smashes his face into a rock: Indigenous storytelling, truth-telling and community approaches to reconciliation. This is a talk by Dr. Jeff Corntassel, Chaw-win-is and Nahla Valji, at the Liu Institute’s Transitional Justice Network. To register attendance, see http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/liuinstitute/register-tjn-event-trc/
For more information on the lecture, visit http://tjn.moonfruit.com
Backstory: Nuuchaanulth Ceremonial Curtains and the Work of Ki-ke-in includes an opportunity for viewers who wish to learn more about this area of tradition and contemporary creativity. A symposium, Talking about Thliisapilthim: Nuuchaanulth Ceremonial Curtains, takes place on Friday January 15, from 10 am to 5:30 pm, and Saturday January 16, 10 am to 12:30 pm 2010 on the campus of the University of British Columbia. Attendees are required to reserve in advance by emailing belkin.RSVP@ubc.ca or by calling 604 822 3640.
http://www.belkin.ubc.ca/events/backstory-symposium
Photographs by First Nations artist Arthur Renwick, originally from Kitimat British Columbia and now based in Toronto, will be shown at the Richmond Art Gallery in Greater Vancouver from January 29 to April 4 2010.
“Mask is a group of portraits of First Nations artist from various disciplines. Renwick spoke at length with each artist about the complex relationship between representation and First Nations people. The results are larger than life-sized portraits of people "pulling face" as they look back through the lens in response to that history.”
More information at http://www.richmondartgallery.org
The Surrey Art Gallery just outside of Vancouver is showing Frank Shebageget: Model Life from January 23 to April 4 2010.This solo show presents finely detailed sculpture and drawing that present images of community and shared identity in contemporary First Nations life across Canada. An Artist’s talk and exhibition preview will be held on Thursday January 21 at 7:30 pm. See http://arts.surrey.ca
The Audain Gallery at Simon Fraser University will open in downtown Vancouver with First nations/Second Nature, an exhibition which contains works by local, national and international artists that spring from First Nations concepts of territory. Included are works by Brian Jungen, Cheryl L’Hirondelle and Rebecca Belmore’s The Named and the Unnamed of 2002. The Audain Gallery is at SFU Woodward’s at 149 West Hastings Street in Vancouver. The art exhibition opens on February 7 and continues until April 10 2010.
January 23 2010 is the official opening of the renovated and expanded Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. The events scheduled for the weekend of January 23 to 26 2010 include music, First Nations dance, Cantonese Opera demonstrations, film screenings and behind-the-scenes tours. See http://www.moa.ubc.ca
The inaugural exhibition will be Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures, curated by Karen Duffek. “It will bring together the work of twelve artists engaged in a dialogue about cultural boundaries – within and between communities, art practices, audiences, or institutions – and the possibility of translation across them.”
See http://www.borderzones.ca for exhibit information and artist profiles.
Many of the events discussed above are funded in part by the 2010 Cultural Olympiad program.
It will interest some of our readers to know that the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg Ontario is currently showing Woodland School a show including works by First Nations artists Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray, Alex Janvier, and many others, until May 9 2010.
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: Exploring Haida Manga opened January 4 2010, and continues to January 24 at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. This Haida artist’s work “combines diverse media such as cars and ‘zines with his distinctive style that blends traditional Haida art with the Asian graphic novels.” The exhibit includes a giant mural made up of the assembled pages of his popular Haida Manga graphic novel Red! and two video installations. Photographs of Yahgulanaas’ work are at http://mny.ca
At the Washington State Capital Museum in Olympia Washington, a workshop will be held on Saturday February 6 2010, Lessons in Northwest Basketry: Identification and Preservation, from 1 to 4 pm. Lynette Miller will explain design, weaving techniques, materials, and basket care. Ms. Miller is head of collections at the Washington State Historical Society. To register, contact Mark Vessey at mvessey@wshs.wa.gov
At the Washington State History Museum in Olympia, an exhibition opens on January 23 2010 Giants in the Forest: The Search for Sasquatch. The Sasquatch is a mysterious legendary human-like creature believed by some European and First Nations peoples to live in the forests of the Northwest. The curators will be at a behind-the - scenes tour of the exhibition material on January 17 at 6:30 pm.
See http://wshs.pmailus.com/pmailweb/ct?d=KgslGAGhACgAAARJAANxmg
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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, Mark Bradt, Michael Dangeli, Martine Reid, Angela Cachay, 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.