Haida House and the Dogfish Mortuary Pole
The indigenous artists and master carvers of Haida Gwaii have created magnificent hand-split, post-and-beam cedar houses and finely carved totem poles on Canada’s Pacific northwest coast. They are widely appreciated both as fine art and as signifiers of an ancient and enduring Haida culture.
Construction of this late 19th-century Haida Gwaii village replica began in the late 1950s under the direction of renowned Haida artist, Bill Reid, and Kwakwaka’wakw artist, Doug Cranmer. Master Haida carver and hereditary chief, Jim Hart, carved the replacement frontal pole on the larger family dwelling. The red-tonged Dogfish Mortuary Pole looms in the forefront.
The dwellings and carvings are an integral part of Haida myth, cosmology, clan affiliation, family history and social rank - all intricately interconnected to other essential cultural practices (drum-making, storytelling, singing, dancing, potlatch ceremonies) that thrive today amid a flourishing "renaissance" and renewal in indigenous arts and crafts.
The village complex is situated on traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) people and now sits high on the edge of the steep Point Grey escarpment overlooking Vancouver’s Spanish Banks, Howe Sound, the ocean and beyond. explore#276
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved
Haida House and the Dogfish Mortuary Pole
The indigenous artists and master carvers of Haida Gwaii have created magnificent hand-split, post-and-beam cedar houses and finely carved totem poles on Canada’s Pacific northwest coast. They are widely appreciated both as fine art and as signifiers of an ancient and enduring Haida culture.
Construction of this late 19th-century Haida Gwaii village replica began in the late 1950s under the direction of renowned Haida artist, Bill Reid, and Kwakwaka’wakw artist, Doug Cranmer. Master Haida carver and hereditary chief, Jim Hart, carved the replacement frontal pole on the larger family dwelling. The red-tonged Dogfish Mortuary Pole looms in the forefront.
The dwellings and carvings are an integral part of Haida myth, cosmology, clan affiliation, family history and social rank - all intricately interconnected to other essential cultural practices (drum-making, storytelling, singing, dancing, potlatch ceremonies) that thrive today amid a flourishing "renaissance" and renewal in indigenous arts and crafts.
The village complex is situated on traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) people and now sits high on the edge of the steep Point Grey escarpment overlooking Vancouver’s Spanish Banks, Howe Sound, the ocean and beyond. explore#276
© All rights to these photos and descriptions are reserved