From September 2016 to April 2017 I attended Langara Reconciliation Carving Cohort. This was my online journey- a collection of research, thoughts, feelings, work and anything that would aid me and others to help the next 7 generations.
"It was in 1850 that the wagon train of the Brulé and Poirier families
reached Canada, after they decided to travel north to remain with the
“Crown” rather than stay below the newly decided 49th parallel border
after the Oregon Treaty was signed in 1846.
Ellen, the daughter Mary Ann mentions above, married Joseph Poirier, a
voyageur from Quebec (the man for whom Ecolé Poirier is named) and
raised a large family, in a cabin by the Sooke River and later a home on
Grant Road. http://www.sookenewsmirror.com/community/303481881.html
The Seriousness of Play: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas April 20, 2016 to October 2, 2016
"Haida Manga is a contemporary art form that offers a playful way of viewing and engaging with social issues as it seeks participation, dialogue, reflection and action. Influenced by both the tradition of Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has created an artistic practice celebrated for its vitality and originality by an international audience engaged in issues of ethnicity, identity and relationships. " http://www.billreidgallery.ca/Exhibition/CurrentExhibition.php
"The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art is a public gallery nestled in the heart of downtown Vancouver. It is named after the acclaimed Haida artist Bill Reid (1920 – 1998). Reid was a master goldsmith, carver, sculptor, writer, broadcaster and spokesman.
Gallery highlights include: Reid’s gold and silver jewelry, his monumental sculptures in bronze and stone, and a full-scale totem pole, carved by James Hart of Haida Gwaii. "
I made a video and here's are some photos I took.
Special Thanks to the carvers:
Corey Bulpitt, The Captain, and Rick Adkins.
Bill Reid (1920-1998), acclaimed Haida master goldsmith, carver, sculptor, writer and spokesman, was one of Canada's greatest artists.
Bill Reid was born to a Haida mother and an American father of Scottish and German roots. While working as a broadcaster with the CBC in Toronto in the early 1950s, he studied jewelry-making at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, and later studied classic European jewelry-making at the London School of Design. He combined European jewelry techniques with the Haida art tradition. His passion for Haida art was kindled by a visit to Haida Gwaii in 1954 where he saw a pair of bracelets masterfully engraved by the great carver and his great-great-uncle, Charles Edenshaw, after which, to use his own words, “the world was not the same.”
For the next fifty years Reid embraced many art forms. He gradually explored his rich Haida cultural heritage, studying early ethnographic publications, museum collections, and surviving examples of strong works from Haida Gwaii, always trying to understand the logic behind the form.
