Kuuya GyaaGandal (Sacred One Standing and Moving in Wās’go form)

Don’t Spill the Duck Grease, artist Kwiaahwah Jones, Haida, 2018.
Vectorized image of coloured pencil drawing. Courtesy the artist.

This is an image of Kuuya GyaaGandal (Sacred One Standing and Moving) in Wā’sgo form. Wā’sgo is a supernatural sea wolf who is featured in a number of Haida oral histories. He competed in a great competition against Kaagwaal (Stone Ribs) at Xaayna to see who would hold up Haida Gwaii, and when he moves there are earthquakes on Haida Gwaii. Our oral histories tell us that Kuuya GyaaGandal (Sacred One Standing and Moving) won the competition with the strength of his Wā’sgo skin.

When they competed for this position they say that Kuuya GyaaGandal (Sacred One Standing and Moving) walked into the room of supernatural beings with his Wā’sgo skin on, and that he was so handsome and beautiful that no one could look directly at him. He laid upon a fire for four days and nights and won the competition. He holds up Haida Gwaii today.

Early in Kuuya GyaaGandal’s (Sacred One Standing and Moving) history he dumped duck grease from a large clamshell, and they say all the supernaturals of the forest said, “Don’t spill the duck grease!” So, when there is an earthquake, all of the men of Raven clans say, “Don’t spill the duck grease!” as a prayer or appeal to Kuuya GyaaGandal (Sacred One Standing and Moving) to become still.

It felt fitting to name this Wā’sgo Don’t Spill the Duck Grease as a way to share my hope that there are no earthquakes during the Shake Up: Preserving What We Value exhibition.

Kwiaahwah Jones, 2018

Kwiaahwah Jones

Kwiaahwah Jones is of both Haida and Nisga’a descent. She studied Haida art with Haida artists and through Haida collections held in many museums and institutions locally, nationally, and internationally. In 2005, Kwiaahwah Jones won the Vancouver International Airport Art Foundation Scholarship for young Northwest Coast artists. She has worked as a curator at the Haida Gwaii Museum at Kay Llnagaay and the Bill Reid Gallery. Most recently she was the guest curator of the exhibition Haida Now at the Museum of Vancouver. Kwiaahwah continues to create and curate visual art and is applying her artistic talents to traditional hand-poked Haida tattoos.

Making history
visible

Interview with Kwiaahwah Jones, Haida Artist

Kwiaahwah Jones shares her experiences of becoming an artist, as well as the reason she created the artwork Don’t Spill the Duck Grease for this exhibition. She tells an abridged version of the Haida story of Kuuya GyaaGandal (Sacred One Standing and Moving), and explains why she has chosen to create a handsome Wā’sgo artwork.

Credits:

Editor: Josh Hite
Videography: Caroline Cassinelli

Earthquake Foot

Earthquake Foot, artist A-nii-sa-put (Tim Paul), Hesquiaht, 2018
Vectorized image of silkscreen print, 1977. RBCM 15247a. Courtesy Royal BC Museum and Archives.

Earthquake Foot is a representation of a Mowachaht-Muchalaht story told to Hesquiaht artist A-nii-sa-put (Tim Paul) by his first carving teacher, Ben Andrews.

Tim Paul explains that his print depicts the moment when the traveller tires and kicks the drum, becoming inflicted with earthquake foot, while one of the mountain dwarves in the House of Earthquake looks on.

We have chosen to highlight this image in order to emphasize that Indigenous cultural knowledge is applicable to the present. The story of Earthquake Foot teaches us to have foresight that earthquakes and tsunamis will happen again on the west coast. It reminds us that we are part of the land and ocean, and not above it. Be prepared.

A-nii-sa-put
(Tim Paul)

A-nii-sa-put (Tim Paul) is a senior Northwest Coast artist and educator of the Hesquiaht people. As a youth he felt fortunate to live with his maternal grandparents, Joe Smith and Ester Brown, in Esperanza Inlet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. They instilled in him family cultural teachings that respect aspects of the natural environment—such as wind, mountains, and lakes—as relatives. These values inform his artistic output, whether he is creating portrait masks, totem poles, paintings, silkscreen prints, or ceremonial regalia. Although forced to attend Christie Indian Residential School on Meares Island at the age of 15, A-nii-sa-put credits his family teachings as a source of strength, enabling him to survive the violence and alienation he experienced at the school.

A-nii-sa-put held the position of First Carver at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria from 1984 to 1992, where he oversaw numerous commissions for totem poles destined for the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and across Canada. A-nii-sa-put’s art resides in private collections and public institutions including the Canadian Museum of History and the Royal British Columbia Museum. His artwork has been shown in such important local and international exhibitions as The Legacy: Continuing Traditions of Canadian Northwest Coast Indian Art (1980), Down From the Shimmering Sky (1998), Out of the Mist—Treasures of the Nuu-chah-nulth Chiefs (1999), and Changing Hands: Art Without Reservation 2 (2006).

Family Cultural
Knowledge

Shared by A-nii-sa-put (Tim Paul), Hesquiaht Artist

Hesquiaht artist, A-nii-sa-put (Tim Paul) shares his family cultural teachings about the last three big tsunamis that hit the west coast of Vancouver Island. A-nii-sa-put tells these histories to help us learn about having foresight and being prepared for the next earthquake. This interview was recorded in his home in Port Alberni, British Columbia on September 25, 2018.

Credits:

Editor: Josh Hite
Videographer: Julia Ferry

New Song,
Old Knowledge

Stan and Zachary Lucas, Hesquiaht, sing t̓aqiiƛ (earthquake) song

Credits:

Editor: Josh Hite
Videographer: Julia Ferry

In the video New Song, Old Knowledge you will hear a recently composed song that speaks of being prepared for future t̓aqiiƛ (earthquakes). Language revitalization is happening in this Indigenous community, and composing new songs, based on old oral histories, is part of such work. This song was composed by A-nii-sa-put (Tim Paul) with his mother, wife, and aunt in 2012. It was transliterated by Stan Lucas, Jr. Hesquiaht singers Stan Lucas, Sr. and son Zachary Lucas performed t̓aqiiƛ on September 25, 2018 in Port Alberni, British Columbia.

The lyrics say:

The earthquake is coming
We still respect nature
We want everyone to understand and share our teachings
We understand our ancient knowledge
We still respect nature.

Reflecting on the song, A-nii-sa-put says, “We survived because we sing. Our people were great, great singers. Singing exudes all of that good feeling. I’m a survivor of residential school but I leave that behind so I can talk about why I survived. I want to go up, forward, and sing for my young nieces and nephews.”

Chief Louie Nookmiis
Oral Account of Pachena Bay Tsunami

Listen to Chief Louie Nookmiis tell this story of the Pachena Bay tsunami.

In 1964, Chief Louie Nookmiis (1884-1964) of the Huu-ay-aht people recorded an oral history in the Nuu-chah-nulth language, only a few months before he died. He told of a powerful earthquake on the west coast of Vancouver Island that caused a tsunami that destroyed the people of Pachena Bay. Chief Nookmiis’ narrative is directly linked to writings from Japan that speak of a great “orphan” tsunami that struck eastern Japan on January 27, 1700.

Source of textual transliteration of Nuu-chah-nulth and translation into English:
Family Origin Histories: The Whaling Indians. West Coast Legends and Stories. Part 11 of the Sapir-Thomas Nootka Texts. Told by Chief Louie Nookmiis. Prepared by Edward Sapir, Morris Swadesh, Hamilton George, Alexander Thomas, Frank Williams, Katie Fraser, and John Thomas. Edited by Eugene Arima, Henry Kammler, Terry Klokeid, and Katherine Robinson. Mercury Series Ethnology 145, Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2009: 328-332.

Credits:

Media Editor: Josh Hite

We thank Chief Tayii Hawilth Derek Peters, Huu-ay-aht First Nations, Robert Dennis, Chief Councillor Huu-ay-aht First Nations, and Researcher Kevin Neary.

Nininigamł
(earthquake mask)

Nininigamł (earthquake mask), artist attr. John Nolie,
‘Nak’waxda’xw, (Kwakwaka’wakw) before 1939. MOA A6357. Photo by Jessica Bushey.

This Nininigamł (earthquake mask) has a deep history and ongoing relevance to a number of families from Gwa’yi (Kingcome Inlet, British Columbia), the home of the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw people of the Kwakwaka’wakw. Artist and knowledge-holder Chief Waxawidi (William Wasden, Jr.) attributes this mask to John Nolie (1886-1965), a ’Nak’waxda’xw (Kwakwaka’wakw) artist from Ba’a’s (Blunden Harbour), who made it for the high-ranking Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw chief, Hector Webb. The mask has been in the collection of MOA since 1954, when Hector Webb’s widow Emily Watson sold it to the Museum.

The hereditary rights to the earthquake story, song, dance, and mask are owned by at least two Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw families, including the descendants of Hector Webb and Johnny Nelson.

Ninini is performed during the Tłasila (Peace Dances) portion of the Kwakwaka’wakw potlatch – a time when chiefly families open their Box of Treasures to validate their connections to specific lands and resources, and demonstrate their ancestral knowledge of supernatural and natural events, such as earthquakes.

The eyebrows and mouth on this well-engineered mask move in tandem when danced. When in motion, the mask tells us when Ninini (Earthquake) makes the land move. As Gigaemi says, “I would think when he wrinkles his face that the earth wrinkles—and that would be an earthquake.”

Quotes from
K’odi and Gigaemi

Dancing Ninini –
a Kwakwaka’wakw Right

Ninini is performed at the Frank Nelson Memorial Potlatch hosted by ’Maxwiyalidzi (K’odi Nelson) with his uncles Alec Nelson and Gigaemi (Frank Baker), October 6-7, 2018 in ’Yalis (Alert Bay, British Columbia). The Nininigamł (earthquake mask) being danced is a replica of the one on display, attributed to Johnny Nolie. Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw (Kwakwaka’wakw) artist Les Nelson (1934-1984) carved the mask danced in the video. It is in the collection of the Museum at Campbell River, and is made available for ceremonial use by the families who hold the rights.

Credits

Director + Editor: Marina Dodis
Videography: Marina Dodis and Mike McKinlay

We would like to acknowledge ’Maxwiyalidzi (K’odi Nelson) for inviting the Museum of Anthropology to film the Ninini dance and interview during the Frank Nelson Memorial Potlatch held in Alert Bay, BC, October 6-7, 2018. Gilakas’la.

"It Shakes
the Whole World”

Gigaemi (Frank Baker) and ’Maxwiyalidzi (K'odi Nelson) on Family Rights

After the two-day Frank Nelson Memorial potlatch on October 6-7, 2018, ’Maxwiyalidzi (K’odi Nelson) and Gigaemi (Frank Baker) shared the significance of showing their family prerogative of Ninini (earthquake). Muskamagw Dzawada’enuxw (Kwakwaka’wakw) artist Les Nelson (1934-1984) carved the mask shown in the video. It is in the collection of the Museum at Campbell River, and is made available for ceremonial use by the families who hold the rights.

Credits:

Director + Editor: Marina Dodis
Videography: Mike McKinlay

We would like to acknowledge ’Maxwiyalidzi (K’odi Nelson) for inviting the Museum of Anthropology to film the Ninini dance and interview during the Frank Nelson Memorial Potlatch held in Alert Bay, BC, October 6-7, 2018. Gilakas’la.

Ninini
(Earthquake) Song

This is Chief Tłalilit̓ła’s (Johnny Nelson’s) Ninini (Earthquake) song. Renowned singer and ’Nak’waxda’xw chief, Hiwakilis (Tom ‘Mackenzie’ Willie), from Ba’a’s (Blunden Harbour, British Columbia), recorded this song in 1984 at the Museum of Anthropology with anthropologist Peter Lando. At that time, Willie’s wife Elsie Williams interpreted the song’s meaning this way: “Ninini has been moving all over the world. Before Ninini comes in, the Big House begins to shake. It really shook. Ninini makes cracks open up and big rocks slide and the whole land changes shape. Whole countries change shape from Ninini.”

Ninini (Earthquake) Song

(Lyrics in Kwak’wala and English)

Ha-a-yaya-a-ha yaya-ha
ha-y ya-a yaya a-a ha-ay yaya-ha
ha-y ya-a yaya a-a ha-ay yaya-ha
yey ha-ha howa-a-a-ha
a-a he-e-e-ey haha-a-a

Ya̱wa-hay dła t̓ła-ha yeymiyala-aEvery time the Being goes around.
gi̱li-hi dza̱ma-a sa g̱wa’a g̱uwi-hiIt causes the whole earth to move.
sax̱eya-ha howa-a-a-ha This is truly you.
a-a he-e-e-ey haha-a-a

Ha-a-yaya-a-ha yaya-ha
ha-y ya-a yaya a-a ha-ay yaya-ha
ha-y ya-a yaya a-a ha-ay yaya-ha
yey ha-ha howa-a-a-ha
a-a he-e-e-ey haha-a-a

Ya̱wa-hay da̱-a̱-m li-ixwa̱la-aEvery time it sounds like thunder when it shakes.
gi̱li-hi dza̱ma-a sa g̱wa’a g̱uwi-hiIt causes the whole earth to move.
sax̱eya-ha howa-a-a-ha This is truly you.
a-a he-e-e-ey haha-a-a

Credits

Recording and Peter Lando notes courtesy U’mista Cultural Society.
Song translation courtesy Hiwakilis (Tom Willie)
Song transliteration courtesy Waxawidi (William Wasden, Jr.)