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.
From Wikipedia
Photo Description
English: Beaver "Manda", by Jim Hart, 1995, Canadian Museum of History
Date 21 February 2016
Source Own work
Author D. Gordon E. Robertson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hart_(artist)
Hart was born in Massett, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. His mother, Joan Hart, is the grand-daughter of Charles Edenshaw. His father was European, allowing Hart to escape the Canadian Indian residential school system that many Haida of his time were sent to. Instead, he grew up with his grandparents and became a fisherman.[2]
Hart discovered his passion for Haida art in high school. He began carving seriously in 1979. Hart first apprenticed with Robert Davidson in 1978 to help construct a set of totem poles. From 1980 to 1984 he became an assistant to Bill Reid in Vancouver, who by then was too seriously afflicted with Parkinson's disease to do much of his own carving. He began his work with Reid by putting the finishing details on The Raven and the First Man, a centerpiece of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, and he also assisted on Reid's Spirit of Haida Gwaii / The Jade Canoe.[2][4]
Hart lives in both Vancouver and Haida Gwaii.[2] In Haida Gwaii, he is known as ˀIdansuu, a hereditary chief name that he received in 1999 after it had earlier been held by Charles Edenshaw.[2][3] As chief he belongs to the Hereditary Chiefs Council of the Haida Nation.[5] He was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 2003.[6] Read more
The other week Shane Pointe asked a favor of us as we gathered in a circle. He asked if we would send loving positive healing thoughts to Beau Dick as he was sick in the hospital.
This morning I heard of his passing.
I didn't know the man. I had seen his carvings many times but didn't even know they were by him.
I knew of the breaking of the copper.
I love the things he says in here about material wealth and timing.
Sending out love, light and my deepest condolences to his family, friends, community and all who knew him and his art. May he rest in peace. May he Rest In Power
From Wikipedia
"Beau was born in Kingcome Inlet, BC, a remote Kwakwaka’wakw village north of Vancouver Island before moving to Vancouver, BC at age 6. From a young age he was heavily influenced by the traditional carving work of both his grandfather and father, with whom he assisted in carving one of the world’s tallest totem poles in Alert Bay, BC. At age 17 he was asked to apprentice under artist Tony Hunt in Victoria, BC. Eventually returning to Vancouver, he continued to hone his carving techniques under the influence of Doug Cranmer." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau_Dick
On February 10, 2013, Beau performed a traditional copper-cutting ceremony on the steps of the BC Legislature in Victoria in conjunction with a variety of activists, including local members of Idle No More. Having embarked on a 10-day, 500 km walk from Alert Bay to Victoria, the gesture was intended to bring attention to the abuse of Native treaties by the federal government, as well as highlight the negative repercussions of commercial fish farms on Vancouver Island.[7][8]
The ceremony was noted as being the first time such a shaming practice had been used by the Kwakwaka’wakw in decades.[9]
"The copper is a symbol of justice, truth and balance, and to break one is a threat, a challenge and can be an insult. If you break copper on someone and shame them, there should be an apology.”
— Beau Dick
Video that I took at the Raising of the Survivor's Totem Pole on the DTES
Film I took at the Raising of the Survivor's Totem Pole on the DTES
Beau Dick, a Kwakwaka’wakw carver, based in Alert Bay, B.C.
Beau Dick, a Kwakwaka’wakw carver, based in Alert Bay, B.C.
"Beau’s story shifts then, to talk about the Haida of that time, and how
up until the 1860s there were probably 14,000 of them. They would often
travel in large flotillas of canoes to Fort Victoria to trade, passing
through Kwakwaka’wakw waters. After one mass migration, “Dawson told my
great-grandfather to stay away from them when they returned from
Victoria and of course Kakab asked him why. Dawson said they would all
be sick and embarrassedly told him that he knew first hand that the
government he worked for—that James Douglas and the Hudson’s Bay Company
were holding hands, as he described it—and they had a plan to
distribute smallpox-infested blankets amongst the Haida in the hopes
that they would spread this disease to all the other tribes on the coast
on their way home."
