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Haida
- Art
The
Haida fashioned for themselves a world of costumes
and adornments, tools and structures, with spiritual
dimensions appropriate to each. The decorations on
the objects they created were statements of social
identity, or reminders of rights and prerogatives
bestowed on their ancestors by supernatural beings,
or of lessons taught to them through mythic encounters
with the animals, birds, fish or other beings whose
likenesses were embodied in the crests passed down
through generations.
The
abstract concept of art for art's sake had little
meaning for the Haida, but they had exceptionally
high standards of craftsmanship and the desire to
constantly improve their skills. As inhabitants of
an archipelago that lacked many of the prized natural
resources available on the mainland -- such as mountain
sheep or goats, major runs of eulachon fish, mineral
pigments, and specialized stones and metals for tools
-- the Haida began about 2,000 years ago to trade
in order to maintain status among their neighbours.
What they offered in exchange were products of skilled
workmanship, especially their exceptional canoes,
but ranging over a great variety of objects such as
carved and painted chests, as well as other furnishings
appropriate to the potlatch feasts of all the other
north coast tribes.
They
imported the raw materials that they lacked and processed
them into highly refined products that they then exported
to other tribes on Vancouver Island and the mainland.
Such items included copper shields, silver and copper
jewellery (after the late eighteenth century), as
well as horn bowls, ladles, spoons, and possibly goat's
wool blankets. The Haida excelled in making and engraving
copper shields, and examples of their work have been
collected from the Tsimshian, Tlingit, Kwakwaka'wakw
(or Kwakiutl) and most other peoples of the coast.
From the first days of contact, the Haida tailored
their production of art to European and American requirements.
Just as the traders catered to the Haida by setting
up the shipboard manufacture of iron and copper implements
and even items of clothing, the Haida developed art
and crafts that appealed to the traders. Most popular
were small carvings made of argillite (a soft black
stone), items of ivory and silver, as well as a wide
variety of wooden and basketry "souvenirs." Literally
thousands of such items, collected before the end
of the sea otter trade in the 1830s, have turned up
in the New England states and the British isles. Numbers
of them have found their way into museum collections.
Sculptures*
Haida
sculptures range from 20-metre (65-foot) tall totem
poles to the equally complex carved handles of horn
spoons. This ability to express artistic concepts
over a range of sizes and forms has attracted the
admiration of art aficionados worldwide over the past
two centuries. The earliest known Haida sculptures
are from cave sites or remote graves of shaman that
date from the mid-eighteenth century. The oldest carved
poles are undoubtedly shaman grave posts, some of
which are late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
They portray primarily human figures, whereas the
monumental poles standing in the villages display
crests and supernatural beings from mythology. The
earliest surviving poles include triple mortuary posts
circa 1820 from Kiusta and a large house pole circa
1840 from Hiellan village. On these four poles, the
figures are very large and few in number, with many
small faces appearing at the joints, eyes and ears.
The
oldest burial chest is from the Gust Island burial
cave, while a slightly later example from an eighteenth-century
mortuary at Kiusta is now in the Royal British Columbia
Museum. In both examples, the eye forms are very elongated,
with slits in the pupils. Another early piece is a
sea lion-shaped bowl that is characteristic of the
eighteenth-century pieces collected by early explorers.
The
majority of Haida carvings created during the last
half of the nineteenth century belong to the classic
style. Facial features such as eyes, ears, nostrils
and lips are very large, and occupy about the same
space as the forehead, cheeks and jaw. This gives
the animal or bird forms a youthful or even naive
look that viewers find appealing. The formal symmetry
of the crest art also provides a serenity and charm
akin to Egyptian art. Smaller sculptures such as masks
and frontlets range from the mystic to the frightening,
and occasionally the comical. Following the tragic
depopulation of the late 1860s due to epidemics and
the deculturation of the survivors by Indian agents
and missionaries in the 1870s and 1880s, the monumental
sculptural tradition was abandoned. Carvers miniaturized
their production into models of houses and poles,
tailoring their art to the tourist market. Few new
artists were trained, and eventually the canons and
tenets of the distinctive Haida style were lost. Those
traditions were rediscovered by the current generation
of artists who learned by studying models on dusty
museum shelves.
Chiefly
Possessions
Over
time, trade among the people of the north coast groups
-- the Haida, Tsimshian,
Tlingit and Nisga'a -- led
to the mutual adoption of a limited range of objects
and materials that symbolized wealth and prestige.
These included the regalia used by chiefs, such as
headdresses decorated with ermine skins. Other prestigious
objects included artistically decorated chests, boxes
and bowls used to store and display the food and wealth
that characterized the potlatches.
Chiefs
of all the tribes of the north coast possessed an
array of regalia, which was documented in drawings
by the Russian artist Mikhail Tikanov as early as
1818 and which was compared by travellers and missionaries
to robes of the Masonic order with regard to their
importance in denoting status. For chiefs, this regalia
provided a shared frame of reference for the exchange
of wealth between nations with different languages
and belief systems.
The
full set of chiefly regalia consisted of a Chilkat
blanket, leggings, an apron, a frontlet and a pair
of Raven rattles (or a drum). A chief was also likely
to own a shield-shaped plate of native copper; this
was a symbol of wealth that was displayed at feasts
and could be exchanged or substituted for other commodities.
After a chief's death, his coppers were often fastened
on his memorial pole.
The
Haida adopted most of these symbols of chiefly rank,
particularly the items of clothing, from the Tsimshian
and Nisga'a, and either manufactured their own or
acquired them through trade with mainland groups.
Very few Chilkat blankets appear to have been woven
on Haida Gwaii, however; there was no local supply
of goat wool, and the pattern boards from which
the blankets were woven are missing from collections
from Haida Gwaii, although they are common among
the Tlingit. The Haida made their own frontlets
and Raven rattles, although on occasion they obtained
these items in trade from the mainland.
People of classes other than chiefs, such as shaman
or members of secret societies, also had their own
particular regalia.
Clothing*
In
precontact times, most items of Haida clothing were
woven from red or yellow cedar bark. After the bark
was peeled in long strips from the trees, the outer
layer was split away, and the flexible inner layer
was shredded and processed. The resulting felted
strips of bark were soft and could be plaited, sewn
or woven into a variety of fabrics that were either
dense and watertight, or soft and comfortable. Women
wore skirts and capes of cedar bark, while men wore
long capes of cedar bark into which some mountain
goat wool was woven for decorative effect. These
items of clothing are well depicted in drawings
by Sigismond Bacstrom, an artist aboard a trading
ship, the Three Brothers, which visited Haida Gwaii
in 1793.
Early
examples of chief's capes have repetitive patterns
of trophy heads, but after warfare was suppressed
by the traders, the trophy heads were replaced with
crest figures, and the amount of wool used was increased
to the point where the cedar bark warps could not
even be seen. The fur of sea otter or other animals
was added to the neckline of capes for those of
chiefly rank. After contact, the everyday wear of
men and women was an unadorned trade blanket, worn
as a wraparound garment during the day and used
as a covering at night. Slaves were clothed in handed-down
blankets.
Headdresses*
Headdresses
worn by chiefs included carved frontlets and painted
hats. The item of chiefly regalia that had the most
prestige and recognition among the northern tribes
was the frontlet, a carved wooden plaque worn on
the forehead. The frontlet plaque was carved of
yellow cedar, birch or maple, in bas-relief, affixed
to a cap that was edged with stiff sea lion whiskers
and that had a train of ermineskin. This headdress
appears to have originated with the Nisga'a and
been adopted into the chiefly regalia of other tribes.
The train of densely packed ermineskins may be conceptually
linked to Konankada, who is sometimes depicted as
a painted housefront surrounded by white clouds
or flocks of seagulls that signal the beginning
of eulachon runs on the Nass River. The Whale tail
of Konankada is always attached to the back of this
type of headdress.
Raven
Rattles*
Another
standard accoutrement of a north coast chief was
a pair of Raven rattles. The basic form is that
of the Raven holding a small object in its beak,
in reference to the Raven's bringing sunlight to
mankind. On the Raven's breast is a flat design
image of Konankada. Up to this point of comparison,
the symbols are parallel to those of the Chilkat
blanket: that is, the image of Raven centred by
that of Konankada. The symbolism of the Raven rattle,
however, elaborates upon this basic reference to
the first potlatch. On the Raven's back is a small
human, whose extended tongue is joined to that of
a woodpecker type of bird. Many rattles have a Frog
in the place of the woodpecker, and on some, the
Raven even holds a Frog in its beak in place of
the sun. This may be a mythic reference to the blind
Frog People who lived at the mouth of the Nass River
and whose plight prompted Raven to steal the sun.
These
rattles are complex in their meaning and as yet
have not been fully decoded. A possible clue is
provided by the Tsimshian myth about the Raven who
returns to earth after stealing the sun from the
Sky Chief and lands on his back in Prince Rupert
harbour (where a large petroglyph marks the spot).
The Raven is freed from the rock by a flicker, which
uses its sharp tongue to free it. Another Tsimshian
myth tells of how the first Raven rattle was brought
up on the hook of a fisherman from the Skeena River;
from there, its use spread to other people on the
north coast. The Haida themselves have no such origin
myths and probably received the Raven rattle through
prehistoric trade with the mainland. Raven rattles
were usually used in pairs, which associates them
with ceremonies elsewhere on the coast to mark the
start of salmon runs into the rivers. The swishing
noise of the rattles is said to sound like the fins
of salmon breaking the surface of the water, which
encourages the fish to come past the villages.
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Raven
rattles such as this one were used by a chief
in ceremonies. The different sounds and rhythms
produced by a pair of such rattles enhanced
the drama of his oratory. On this rattle, the
Raven supports a shaman initiate who is drawing
inspiration and knowledge from the animal world
through the link between his tongue and that
of a mythical bird.
Collected
on Haida Gwaii (probably Skidegate) in 1876
by Lord and Lady Dufferin.
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Copper
Shields*
Copper
was the ultimate symbol of wealth among the Haida
and is associated with Copper Woman of Haida myth.
Throughout the coast, shields made of copper were
exchanged at ever higher values between chiefs at
potlatch feasts. Among the Kwakwaka'wakw (or Kwakiutl)
to the south of Haida Gwaii, coppers were particularly
associated with the distribution of wealth at wedding
feasts. The Haida used coppers as a marker and symbol
of wealth, and some wealthy chiefs owned a dozen
or more.
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This
beautifully engraved copper depicting a Sculpin
is a classic Haida object. The bulbous top panel
displays the crest of the owner, and the well-fashioned
T-bar in the lower half represents the backbone
of an ancestor.
Acquired
from the Kaigani Haida circa 1900 by George
T. Emmons for the Lord Bossom collection.
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Masks*
Among
the Haida, masks were used mostly by members of the
secret societies*. Secret society dances frequently
used both masks and puppets to represent wild spirits
of the woods, which the Haida called gagiid. They
are distinguished by an emaciated or wrinkled face
and grimacing mouth, and are often blue-green in colour,
to indicate that they portray a person who has narrowly
escaped drowning and whose flesh has gone cold from
long exposure in cold water.
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A
mask of a young woman wearing a small labret of
abalone shell and with face painting. The red
scalelike carving around the rim is an unusual
feature.
Collected
on Haida Gwaii in 1879 by Israel W. Powell.
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The
head of a gagiid doll used in secret society dances.
The cloth body as well as the wooden hands and
feet have been lost.
Collected
at Masset before 1900 by Charles F. Newcombe.
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Like
their Tsimshian neighbours, the Haida also employed
masks in potlatch performances to illustrate the spirit
beings (geni loci) encountered by their ancestors.
Unfortunately, much less is known about such supernatural
being masks among the Haida than about the nox nox
(or supernatural spirit) masks of the Tsimshian, who
to this day have maintained their traditions in some
interior villages.
The
influence of the tourist market on Haida mask-making
is difficult to evaluate. After the 1840s, masks and
argillite carvings were the items most sought after
by seamen, traders and tourists, and probably several
thousand Haida masks are held in private and museum
collections around the world. Deciding which masks
were made for traditional use rather than for sale
is largely a matter of judgement. Indicators of actual
use include signs of wear on the leather ties and
interior surface, the functionality of the eyeholes,
the allowance for facial fit for wearing, evidence
of attachments of headcloths or animal fur that was
stripped off before sale, and traces of glue and down
or cedar bark. The opposite factors such as no means
for attaching the mask to the wearer's head, no preparation
of the interior to avoid rubbing the wearer's nose
and no functional eyeholes indicate that a mask was
made for tourists.
for
more info on art*
please
visite the following parts of the Museum of Civilization
Site:
Museum
of Civilization, Ottawa, Canada
*
for all these subjects you can find much more information
on the Museum
of Civilization, Ottawa, Canada site (see
SOURCES)
PHOTOS
OF CMC ARTIFACTS: Richard Garner, Harry Foster
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