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Objects Of Bright Pride
It is easy to become entranced by the soft curtain of age, seeing this instead of what it obscures. An ugly building can make a beautiful ruin, and a beautiful mask in the dark of many years, softened by wear, becomes a symbol which tells us that the cycle of life, death, decay and rebirth is a natural and beautiful one.
This is not what their creators intended. These were objects of bright pride, to be admired in the newness of their crisply carved lines, the powerful flow of sure elegant curves and recesses - yes, and in the brightness of fresh paint. They told the people of the completeness of their culture, the continuing lineages of the great families, their closeness to the magic world of universal myth of Story.
William Reid / 1967 (1)
Frontal / Portal Pole & Crests
The frontal or portal pole marks the entrance to a Haida house. They are always tall and tapered with carved figures atop the pole known as watchmen to guard over the village. Each frontal pole also carried that family's crests. Crests were jealously guarded because they were a legacy handed down from their ancestors at Potlatch ceremonies. Haida folklore says they were acquired in a mythic time from supernatural animals or images of supernaturals and had to be held in perpetuity by their descendants. For one family to display a crest belonging to another group was the considered the worst possible insult. The crests, using featuring beaver, bear, wolf, shark, whale, raven, eagle, frog and mosquito, were visual statements about each family's identity and lineage. (2)
Pole Types
The Haida had six principal totem poles: memorial, grave figures, house posts, house-front or portal poles, welcoming poles and mortuary poles. Totem poles weighed up to four tons and measured up to 14 metres high. Only the mortuary poles were carved upside down so that the broad base often measuring one metre across was at the top. This was hollowed out to accommodate the remains of the dead person kept in a carved wooden box some 15 metres above the ground painted with images about their life. The poles were ranged along the beach always facing the ocean of their livelihood. The poles were carved from the tall, straight red cedar and painted in three primary colours : black, red and blue, with white and yellow occasionally featured. Pigments were mixed with a medium derived from dried salmon eggs and paint brushes were made of porcupine hairs. The stunning designs were painted freehand. (3)
McMichael Collection - Art of the Pacific Northwest Indian
The Canadian art form best known to the rest of the world is that of our West Coast Indians. For almost a century, it has been rated internationally as one of the richest and most powerful of all tribal arts. (4)
The people created an art form which celebrated and communicated this belief while illustrating their lineal descent and providing a visual reminder of acquired privileges or rights. Status or prestige within the group was reinforced through the display of carved and painted paraphernalia. (5)
The "potlatch" was the occasion for display when the dancers performed the origin myths wearing masks and costumes. Every conceivable object from small horn spoons to carved poles bore the totems or crests of the clan giving the feast. Generous gifts were given and if accepted, the guest recognized the ancestral and social claims of the giver whose nobility were thus enhanced. (6)
In [Kwakiutl] rituals and ceremonies dramatized during the winter months, dancers displayed large and complex masks often with movable parts which might reveal a mask face within. This dramatization of the idea of transformation was strengthened by the apparent possession of the dancers by supernaturals. (7)
Argillite carvings of miniature totem poles, human figure replicas, pipes and spoons are universally recognized Haida artifacts. Nineteenth century Haidas carved their familiar forms in argillite for trade goods. (8)
[Each work of] the greatest of the Haida carvers, Charles Edensaw (1839-1924), is a masterpiece in concept and design. (9)
West Coast Indian art was both religious and social. The giant totem poles were heraldic crests in which each chief boasted of his strengths and privileges. These were made visual by the use of such symbols as the beaver, bear, frog and killer whale. Of the many thousands of majestic poles commissioned by the chiefs for their villages, most have now decayed - victims of neglect, combined with time and weather. (10)
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Footnotes
1. Objects of Bright Pride: Northwest Coast Indian Art From the American. (Vancouver / New York: The Center for Inter-American Relations and The American Federation of Arts, © 1978)
2. uncredited, Nan Sdins: Spirits Of Haida Gwaii (http://www.HistoryLands.com/sites/12-nan-sdins, © 1999 Digital Wizards Inc.)
3. uncredited, Nan Sdins: Spirits Of Haida Gwaii (http://www.HistoryLands.com/sites/12-nan-sdins, © 1999 Digital Wizards Inc.)
4. Howard B. Roloff "Art of the Pacific Northwest Indian" in A Heritage Of Canadian Art: The McMichael Collection (Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, copyright 1979 McMichael Canadian Collection), p. 155.
5. Howard B. Roloff "Art of the Pacific Northwest Indian" in A Heritage Of Canadian Art: The McMichael Collection (Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, copyright 1979 McMichael Canadian Collection), p. 155.
6. Howard B. Roloff "Art of the Pacific Northwest Indian" in A Heritage Of Canadian Art: The McMichael Collection (Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, copyright 1979 McMichael Canadian Collection), p. 155.
7. Howard B. Roloff "Art of the Pacific Northwest Indian" in A Heritage Of Canadian Art: The McMichael Collection (Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, copyright 1979 McMichael Canadian Collection), p. 155.
8. Howard B. Roloff "Art of the Pacific Northwest Indian" in A Heritage Of Canadian Art: The McMichael Collection (Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, copyright 1979 McMichael Canadian Collection), p. 156.
9. Howard B. Roloff "Art of the Pacific Northwest Indian" in A Heritage Of Canadian Art: The McMichael Collection (Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, copyright 1979 McMichael Canadian Collection), p. 156.
10. Howard B. Roloff "Art of the Pacific Northwest Indian" in A Heritage Of Canadian Art: The McMichael Collection (Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, copyright 1979 McMichael Canadian Collection), p. 156.
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