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 tenth issue of The Beat, a free, independent, newsletter that brings you up-to-date on the art 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 our province.
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Grand Opening of Whistler First Nations Centre
The Squamish-Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler, 115 km from Vancouver, held a public opening celebration on Aboriginal Day, June 21 st 2008.
The private Grand Opening with BC’s Premier and other dignitaries in attendance is on July 10. The centre is already welcoming visitors to enjoy the art on display and the beautiful mountain views from the spectacular Alfred Waugh-designed $30-million building. From July 11, the Centre will be fully operational: featuring a café with a menu which includes traditional First Nations food, a museum, a garden, a shop with traditional art and an 80-seat theatre with a 15-minute film about the Squamish and Lil’wat nations. Storytellers will share their knowledge of Lil’wat and Squamish traditional life. Public hours are 9:30 to 5 pm daily. Admission is $18 for adults.
For more information, phone 1 866 441 7522, or 604 964 0990, or visit the Centre’s website www.slcc.ca
Good News at the Museum!
Ten of the stolen twelve works of art by Haida artist Bill Reid were seized by Vancouver police and will be returned to the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. A search warrant led to the recovery of the art on June 8, but no charges have been laid. The art was stolen in May when a group of thieves broke into the museum at night. Many in the museum world have commented that the university displayed a puzzling lack of candid information as the story unfolded.
The Museum Security Network website posted the following description of the robbery:
http://groups.google.com/group/museum-security-network/browse_thread/thread/1e9c46dd8e2d86a8?hl=en
Still missing are a gold eagle pin 7 cm long and an 8 cm argillite carving. A photograph of the stolen carving can be seen at:
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=2ac6b051-c462-46c8-804a-07a6a047aedc
New Work by Enpaauk
An exhibition called Gratitude – New Work by Enpaauk Andrew Dexel runs from July 4 to August 2, 2008, at the Grunt Gallery at 116 – 350 East 2 nd Avenue in Vancouver.
Enpaauk Anrew Dexel is an emerging artist from the Nlakapmux Nation, near Lytton British Columbia. His painting style “mixes graffiti style with North West Coast design creating figurative and abstract images that speak to resistance and renewal”.
The Grunt Gallery is open Wednesday to Saturdays 12 – 6 pm.
For more information about this and past exhibitions, see www.grunt.ca
Aboriginal Day Celebrations 2008
The spectacular showing of the restored Edward Curtis film In the Land of the Headhunters and the accompanying performance by the Gwa'wina Dancers of the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation dancers at Vancouver’s Chan Centre was sold out on June 22 nd . The live performance was brilliant! The background to this highly successful event is covered in The Beat’s June and May 2008 issues.
The Git Hayetsk Dancers appeared twice in Vancouver on June 21, 2008, Canada’s National Aboriginal Day: first at the Bill Reid Gallery ; there, unusual blue and white costumes surprised the audience in a new dance called Northwind . Its song, a tradition in his family, represents leader Mike Dangeli ’s Nox Nax, his “spirit companion”, the strongest of the four winds. “The song carries our prayers to the other side and brings us back increased strength from there” he explained. New dance choreography was by co-leader Mique’l Askren .
Their second performance of the day was at the plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery where the Nisga'a Ts'amiks Vancouver Society presented an Aboriginal Day program.
In August the Git Hayetsk dancers will be performing in Winnipeg at that city’s huge Folklorama celebration. The First Nations Pavilion where Git Hayetsk performances will be featured is at Riddell Hall at the University of Winnipeg. Guests are invited to enjoy fine cuisine by TV chef David Wolfman. More than 50,000 guests are expected over the week’s celebrations. For more on the Winnipeg pavilion see:
www.manitobachiefs.com/fnpavilion.htm
The Git Hayetsk dancers draw on traditions of the Nisga’a, Tsimshian and Tlingit nations, and are based in Vancouver. They will also be performing in Milwaukee in early September at the Indian Summer Gathering.
Contact dangeli_northwind@yahoo.com for more information on the dance group.
First Nations Archaeology in British Columbia
Important archaeological discoveries in British Columbia are rapidly filling in our scientific understanding of the ancient cultures along the Pacific coast and its rivers. In Maple Ridge, a suburb just east of Vancouver, a First Nations village site was found during work on the new Golden Ears Bridge across the Fraser River. There was intensive population along the banks of the Fraser for millennia, as the abundant salmon was the principal food of coastal peoples. Recent excavations for the Golden Ears Bridge on the north shore of the river brought a 3,600 year-old village to light. An agreement with the local Katzie First Nation resulted in the band’s Katzie Development Corporation undertaking direction of the project. The work was far more fruitful than anyone had imagined. Insight has been gained into diet and agricultural practices of the ancient aboriginal people of the area. A Katzie wapato, a tuber sometimes called Indian potato, which grows in shallow water, was found intact and radiocarbon dated to 3,600 years ago. These discoveries led to a confirmation of how important food sources were “gardened”, i.e. carefully managed, rather than gathered in the “wild”. This change in perspective has serious implications for treaty negotiations. The early European settlers mistakenly saw the “new” land as empty, wild and uninhabited, whereas what they were looking at was land owned and cultivated by highly organized aboriginal social groups.
The many artifacts unearthed will be stored and studied. Construction will continue, even though just 5% of the site has been examined.
Haida News
The June issue of Haida Laas reports that a meeting will be held in September about archaeological issues connected with BC’s First Nations. The First Nations Invitational Archaeology Symposium will be held at the Haida Heritage Centre at Skidegate in the Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands. Presentations, field trips and discussions will be held from September 10 to 12, 2008.
The same issue of Haida Laas reviews Sinxii’gangu , a recent play written and presented by young Haida artist Jaalen Edenshaw.
For more, see www.haidanation.ca/Pages/Haida_Laas/Haida_Laas.html
Other news from the Haida Heritage Centre at Qay’llnagaay : an art exhibition was opened on National Aboriginal Day, and will run until July 21, Plants and Animals through the Eyes of Haida Gwaii , work by local artist Jonathan Bourque .
The festive official opening of the Heritage Centre is on Saturday, August 23, although the multi-faceted centre is already open to the public. For more, see www.haidaheritagecentre.com
Bill Reid Gallery
The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Art exhibitions continue throughout the summer, including a specially curated show featuring Reid’s exquisite jewellery. Gallery summer hours are Monday to Friday10:30 to 5 pm, Saturday and Sunday 11 to 5 pm. A guided tour every day at 3 pm is included in the price of admission. The Gallery is in downtown Vancouver at 639 Hornby Street. For more information see the Gallery’s new, enriched website, www.billreidgallery.ca
Work goes on for next year’s major exhibition Continuum : Vision and Creativity on the Northwest Coast. The Bill Reid Gallery has commissioned art from a selection of First Nations artists who are interested in exploring the relationship between traditional style and iconography and “contemporary” art. The exhibition will open in June 2009.
Sonny Assu , one of the artists involved in the project has already painted a work in what he calls his Personal Totem series after asking himself a provocative question: How would the Raven fit into the new world? His painting iPotlatch v2: 10,000 ancestors in your pocket can be viewed together with a thoughtful artist’s statement at: http://sonnyassu.com
An unusual aspect of the Continuum exhibition project involves the artists and some of their home communities in dialogue events. The first was already held in Vancouver in May. The U'mista Cultural Center in Alert Bay will hold its Continuum Community Dialogue event in conjunction with a showing of the 1914 Edward Curtis film in August. The Haida Heritage Centre in Skidegate is holding its Community Dialogue event in conjunction with a Weavers’ Conference and the Grand Opening of the Centre on August 23. 'Ksan Historical Village and Museum in Hazelton is holding its Community Dialogue event to coincide with the opening of their annual art show. (The ‘Ksan exhibition theme this year will be Totems .)
Auctions
Sales of historic Northwest Coast First Nations art objects discussed in The Beat June 2008 brought some impressive results. On June 11 Sotheby’s sale in Paris of the James Economos collection brought a number of very fine historical pieces to market: a Tsimshian frontal Kolus headpiece, estimated at 85-125,000 Euros, sold for 144,750 Euros or Cdn$231,141. A Kwakiutl mask of Dzoonokwa estimated at 70-100,000 Euros sold for 192,750 Euros or Cdn$307, 790.
Based in Denver and Santa Fe, Mr. Economos was an influential American dealer in First Nations art whose customers included New York Metropolitan Museum’s Director Rene d’Harnoncourt and Adelaide de Menil, and as well as some prominent Surrealist artists. Mr. Economos’ career in the art world began when he was hired as an art dealer’s messenger at the age of nine. Not all items in the auction sold, nor were high prices found across the board.
For more about this and other auctions, see www.sothebys.com
Canoes
Journey to August Aboriginal Games in Cowichan
The
largest-ever Tribal Journeys Canoe Voyage is set to mark the
beginning of the 2008 Indigenous Games. As many as 80 First Nations
traditional ocean-going canoes, from a variety of canoe cultures and
nations, will make a two-week journey to Cowichan, travelling from
the Alaskan border (Tlingit) and the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida)
and as far south as Oregon. Upon arrival in Cowichan Bay, the
paddlers will be received into Cowichan territory with a traditional
Coast Salish Welcome, an ancient ceremony performed for vistors of
other nations. The ritual is a reminder of the sharing of culture and
respect among Indigenous people all over the world.
Landing
day is Monday, July 28
th
,
but ceremonies will continue until August 1, 2008. For more
information contact: Dawnda Nahanee, Tribal Journey Coordinator at
250 746 2008 ext 247. For more on Aboriginal Canoe Journeys, see
http://tribaljourneys.wordpress.com/tribal-journeys-of-the-nw/
2008 Summer Events
The Douglas Reynolds Gallery at 2335 Granville Street in Vancouver opens an exhibition on July 19 th Box of Treasures, “elaborate works of First Nations art both past and present”.
www.douglasreynoldsgallery.com
Third Annual Tsleil-Waututh Nation Cultural Arts Festival is on Sunday, August 17 at Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen in North Vancouver
See www.aboriginalbc.com/trellis/events/2008/06/30/767 for more information, or call 604 924 4156.
The Metis Cultural Festival will be held in Surrey, just outside Vancouver, on the 12 – 13 th of July, at 19359 8 th Avenue.
For more see www.nationtalk.ca
The Squamish Nation’s 21 st Annual Youth Powwow will be held at Capilano Indian Reserve Park in West Vancouver on July 11 – 13. Everyone welcome. See snpowwow@hotmail.com
The Upper Skagit 11 th Annual Celebration will be August 1 – 3 in Washington State. The Host Drum is the Poundmakers from Cutknife Saskatchewan. Information at 360 854 7090.
Interconnected Weavers Gathering is at the Chief Joe Mathias Center 100 Capilano Road North Vancouver on July 5 and 6. For more info call Chief Janice George at 604-990-4155.
Skidegate Days is a big community celebration in the Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands, Thursday July 24 to Saturday July 26 .
Art Commissions for First Nations Artists
The Province of British Columbia is providing $100,000 to the First Peoples' Heritage, Language and Culture Council (the First Peoples' Council) for talented B.C. Aboriginal artists to create an art display at Government House, Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister Michael de Jong announced on June 30 2008. For more, see the Press Release at www.gov.bc.ca/arr/
2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games
VANOC has re-opened its artist registry for individual artists and ensembles interested in participating in the Cultural Olympiad and/or other Olympic and Paralympic Games programs. Designed as a programming resource, the registry will also serve as a central artist database that VANOC can reference for the development of future events. See details and submission guidelines at the website www.vancouver2010.com/en/CultureEducation/CulturalOlympiad/ArtistRegistry
Analogue – Digital Workshop for Artists
CARFAC BC (Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens, BC division), in association with the Alliance for Arts & Culture, is presenting the analogue_digital_workshop for artists working in traditional art forms who would like to expand into other media. The workshop will be co-presented by Kate Armstrong and Aerlyn Weissman, and will cover conceptual and formal concerns, skills and software, network environment and participation, interactivity, social software and the role of technology. The workshop will take place at the Alliance for Arts & Culture at 100-938 Howe Street from 1pm to 4pm on Sunday, July 13, 2008. Cost is $25 for CARFAC and Alliance members, or $30 for non-members. To register, call 604-681-3535 or drop by the Alliance office between 9-4:30pm, Mon-Fri. For more information, visit http://carfacbc.googlepages.com .
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Comments, news and new subscribers are welcomed. Please write to: editor@coastalartbeat.ca
Past issues are available at our website www.coastalartbeat.ca
Thank you for assistance from Martine Reid, Trinity Bissett, Martin Landmann, David Dumaresq and Mike Dangeli.
The Beat is an independent, not-for-profit project written and published in Vancouver Canada by Ann Cameron. Copyright 2008 Ann Cameron.