In 1982, I completed a commission for a 55' totem pole, "Big Beaver", for the entrance to the Field Museum in Chicago. I traveled with a Nisga'a delegation to Chicago to ceremonially raise the pole. In my address, I stated that a pole would only be erected on land that you owned - and thanked the city of Chicago for the gift of such a beautiful city. The Mayor, who spoke next, publicly presented me with the city! The Field Museum were in the midst of finalizing the protocols for the opening of a Maori exhibition and were asked to include a local welcoming, including a warrior contingent, to ensure that the intent of the Maori was a peaceful celebration on foreign soil in response to an invitation. Given my new ownership of the city, I was asked to make a return visit to Chicago with Nisga'a ceremonial warriors to welcome the Maori to Chicago. In return, they presented me with a ceremonial chief's adze, and I will be wearing this to welcome the Maori to Vancouver.

Sea Urchin Bowl
Norman Tait / Lucinda Turner
Nisga'a
Alder
7 x 17 x 17"
w30705

The Sea Urchin Bowl is just a figment of my imagination. I do believe it has spirit, thus the little man on top. The designs along the sides are to enhance the spirit of the bowl.

Raven Frontlet
Norman Tait / Lucinda Turner
Nisga'a
Alder
8.5 x 6.75 x 2.5"
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The Raven Frontlet belongs to a wealthy Raven Chief. Only the chief is allowed to wear the frontlet. It is designed to show off his power and status as a raven chief.

"Lula-ak" The Wind
Norman Tait / Lucinda Turner
Nisga'a
Alder, horsehair
13.75 x 12.25 x 11"
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The Wind Mask is known in our language as a ghost wind - Lula-ak. The story is told to all young hunters in order to make them aware of their surroundings. Their purpose for being in the forest, or on the rivers, or on the crags and cliffs of the high mountains - the domain of Mountain Goats - was to bring home food. They are not allowed to daydream about their spouse or the comforts of home. The ghost wind is always there and will reach in and blow quietly into their faith. If this happens they will become disoriented and lost and they will wander the mountains in that state until they die.

Living in a world that smothers itself in concrete and noise, it is all too often impossible to sense the gifts and movements of spirit.  But perhaps, for me, Te Atinga 1995 at Apu Moana Marae in Rotorua was a sacred gift resulting from my initial journey thirteen years before.

Luck and coincidence is meaningless in the houses of the ancients. The fact is that this gathering of indigenous nations at Apu Moana Marae brought with them a momentum of power and purpose that moved through those ten glorious days and nights.and has continued to rumble through the communities and studios of the arts like a cultural thunderstorm, awakening and nourishing a dream of the ancients for the future.

And I believe it could be too soon to realize the fullness of the dream.  Like an ant in a colony of time, it is all I can do to be committed and content with my gift, however great or small. It is a wonder and mystery of power how the heart can trust and inspire the mind to greatness, but I believe that power placed my heart, mind, and soul, into the fold and play of the Maori at Apu Moana, like the calling of a far away child to a big Mother Earth, the feeding and teachings of the ancients.

Mother and Child
Joe David
Nuu-chah-nulth
Red cedar, cedar bark, human hair, dry earth pigments and paints
20 x 11 x 11"
w30620

"The birth of my youngest, my daughter, Marika, in 1982, brought me to New Zealand for the first time.  Her mother, Paula Swan, was from there and we were bringing our baby to meet her grandparents.

I immediately found New Zealand and the South Pacific to be very beautiful and hospitable.  It provided heart and soul with all the gracious things that inspire the minds and spirits of artists to gracious flight.

Soon after our arrival I found myself at the great museum in Auckland and was overwhelmed with the art and culture of the Maori.  Being a wood carver and coming from a carver's culture, I was in awe of the style and quality and volume - and most important, the spiritual depth and power of the art forms.  I found myself unable to get enough of it all, to be touched and fed and protected by it all.  I was delighted to find I could sense the deep and powerful meaning behind the faces and forms.  For sure, these things of these people respected and welcomed me.

My first and most precious moments with the Maori were visiting in Auckland at the home of Amelia and Eruera Sterling.  Amelia Sterling had looked after Paula when she was a child and they were delighted to see her and meet the new family.  The feel of their home and their voices and movements were so loving and real that I knew, beyond any doubt, that like my child, I was home.  These elders loved and respected us on the basic facts that we were life and we were theirs.

To this day the memory of seeing them sitting side by side on their porch smiling and waving to us as we left fills my heart to bursting and will forever tie my soul to their people.

I have been reborn a number of times in a number of ways by a number of different people - and through our daughter, Marika, I was born to the Sterlings and the Maori of the East Cape - and no matter how many more places I go and other people I become, I will in my heart and soul also remain Maori."

Maui's Hook
Joe David
Nuu-chah-nulth
Alder, cedar rope (circular granite base included)
10 x 11 x 10"
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"Maui, a powerful ancient ancestor of the Maori, is said to have fished the South Island of Aoteaora using his mother's jaw bone as a hook.  Unfortunately this main detail is all that I know of Maui's heroic feat.

My carving is more of a tribute to a present-day cultural hero by the name of The Flaming Heart, otherwise known as Derek Lardelli, a moko master of the Ngati Porou people of the East Cape.  A very important and famous artist in his own right, I had the honour and privilege of having him as one of my welcoming hosts at Apu Moana Marae in Rotorora at an indigenous arts gathering, Te Atinga 1995.

Later, in my extended visit as a guest at his home, I saw a very beautiful and powerful lithograph print by him of Maui's Hook.  The jaw-bone with moko etched into it was so elegant and powerful in it's directness and simplicity that it has kept me overwhelmed and inspired to this day.

It speaks to me of how any man in his lifetime, through greatness of heart and mind, can live the soul of his people and be the wind to a sail of history."

"Tla-O-Qui-Aht" Warrior
Joe David
Nuu-chah-nulth
Red Cedar, hair
12 x 9 x 8"
CDN$7850. / U$5688.
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This mask represents the warriors of my people, as a tribute to them, and was made to be present as a welcoming host to the Maori visitors.

Echachisht Frog Song Mask & Rattle
Joe David
Nuu-chah-nulth
Red Cedar, hair
Mask: Ht.: 15 x 7 x 6" / Rattle: L.: 8.5 x 4 x 3.5"
CDN$12000. / U$8696.
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"In the early 1980's, I was spending summers in my remote little island paradise called Echachisht. I had several shamanic dreams, visions and experiences - one of which involved me sitting in my cabin singing a very beautiful and powerful Indian song until realizing the song was a frog song. Surprised by this, I thought "but I don't not know a frog song!" And, as a result, the song disappeared from my heart, mind, and voice, and has not since returned - much to my horror at my blunder.

Then a following event, maybe a year later, when I was awoken in the middle of the night by a loud male voice telling me to "get ready, the frog medicine is coming!"

Followed by another incident, maybe a year or so later in an urban setting, again I was awoken in the middle of the night by the presence of a very large pure white frog beside me on top of the bedding. Wide awake and startled, fearful even, I slowly slid out of the bed and even though in the dim lit room I could see clearly the frog and full details of the room, I moved towards the light switch and turned on the room light where upon the large frog disappeared.

Now many more years later, I am in our Sundance arbor in the middle of the mountain desert of northern Arizona, it is the evening, and we are placing the sacred tree of life in the arbor's centre. Many dozens of male dancers are storming about in trance labour, dust is flying everywhere, when suddenly I alone notice a small white frog frozen in the dry storm, untouched by the many stomping feet.

I go over and pick up the frog and cupped in my hands, I go and show it to our Sundance Chief. He advises me to go and show it to some local elders - and a couple of Navajo grandmothers speak in their language to a younger woman and she gets a small container of fresh water and asks me to follow her. We go off a little distance and I am directed to place the frog in a small brush of sage where upon she says a prayer in her language and pours a small amount of water on the frog.

Walking away she says to me "it's going to rain!" and sure enough, a few days into our Sundance, the area was blessed with a downpour.

So, the Frog in the Shaman's mouth represents the Frog song and the frog emerging from the Mother Earth rattle represents the rain maker."

I visited Aoteaoa in the spring of this year with the intent of meeting and working with some of the Maori artists, which I did, and my wife was interested in researching Maori language programs to see if these would be applicable to the Haida. Beyond this it was a vacation in a beautiful country and the hospitality of some wonderful people.

Many of the Haida stories involve a single individual who chooses to contradict the teachings or philosophies of those around him in order to seek personal or spiritual enlightenment. Looking back, these are pivotal moments in Haida history as a new level of understanding of our world, or us as a people, has been revealed. In the present, we must be equally prepared to take steps into the unknown to better understand ourselves and to take decisive steps into the future. There will always be those who are staid and afraid of change, but interaction with other cultures offers great value in seeing how other cultures flourish and reinforce traditions in the present.

Man Carried by Killerwhale
Christian White
Haida
Argillite, abalone shell, catlinite
3.5 x 1.5 x 1"
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The Haida and the Maori share a common history of wearable art in the form of amulets and pendants. The image of a man riding on a whale also appears in the core histories of both cultures.

The Haida tell of the loss of three brothers who were known to travel on rough seas to hunt seals. On one occasion, they were near some islets off the Northwest tip of Haida Gwaii and were surrounded by a pod of killer whales who circled the canoe, pulling it beneath the waves. The brothers were taken to the village of the ocean people. Inside the longhouse, the killerwhale people could take off their skins and take human form. They had a ritual to transform the brothers into killer whales - the younger brothers underwent the transformation, but the eldest had a black stone amulet worn around his neck that he used to ward off the fins until the Killer Whales finally stopped - his brothers save him by carrying him back to the shore.

He arrives days after his disappearance and hears the sounds of mourning coming from his village - particularly from his own mother who has now lost all of her sons. He feels too ugly to enter the village and spends several days in the peripheral forest listening to the growing sounds of mourning. In his pain he lets out a great cry - and the sky opens to a great thunderstorm that washes away his killer-whale skin, and he then is able to enter the village as a surviving son and has the opportunity to recount the fate of his brothers.

After he recovers, he is told that two whales have washed ashore and he requests they not be touched, as they are his brothers. He hosts a memorial potlatch to the whales and takes the killer whale as a crest. The Haida belief is that when someone is lost at sea, they transform into killer whales.

Wasco Rising from the Depths
Christian White
Haida
Argillite, abalone shell, catlinite, jade, mastadon ivory, basalt
11 x 7 x 4.5"
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This sculpture captures the moment Wasco rises out of the lake.

There was a high-ranking woman who had a son-in-law that she deemed to be very lazy. In reality, he was quite industrious, but he fueled her belief by stopping his work or pretending to be sleeping every time she came near. She voiced her negative opinion of him often and publicly.

Near the village was a deep lake and there had been sightings of a large mysterious creature known as Wasco. The son-in-law begins a fast to clear his body and mind. He visits the lake and climbs into a crook of a tree branch reaching over the water and sees the Wasco pass beneath him with a spiraled spear sticking out of his nose - then it was gone. As he continues his fast, a great bird lands on the branch of a cedar tree and tells him how to capture this creature and the power that it possessed.

He made a trap, which was essentially a large log, split to the centre point and fallen so that it was suspended far over the lake. The two points were pried apart with rope and two large fishing spears mounted into the ends. Two children, who were not yet of an age to talk, were taken from the village and dangled by ropes above the trap. When the monster rose from the water to take the bait, the ropes prying open the trap were cut driving the spear points into the Wasco. The children were returned unharmed to their families.

When the Wasco was caught, the son-in-law takes his skin and puts it on, transforming himself into the Wasco. He dives into the water and finds a tunnel that takes him out into the ocean. There he encounters a spring salmon, which he deposits onto the beach in front of his Mother-in-law's house. He removes the suit and returns to human form, but at night will often again become the Wasco, venturing out into the ocean to capture increasingly larger and more difficult to capture sea-life, beginning with salmon, halibut, sea lions, and smaller whales - always depositing them in front of his Mother-in-law's house. She comes to fancy herself as a great shaman and the gift of sea life is her prayers and prophecies coming true.

One night, the Wasco encounters a large and powerful pod of killer whales and engages in a hard-fought battle, eventually defeating two of them, but he has taken a severe beating and manages only to crawl ashore before collapsing. The villagers arrive in the morning and were amazed to see not only the whales - but also the large powerful Wasco. On closer inspection, they stare into the eye of Wasco and see the face of her son in law. After the son-in-law recovers, he steps out of the skin. His mother-in-law loses her prestige and in a state of great embarrassment she flees the village.

I was not just welcomed, but was made to feel at home in Aotearoa during my visit in 2002 to accept an invitation from Toi Maori to attend the Wellington Festival of the Arts. It was very much like visiting my own people. I feel a connection to the Maori that begins with the rich culture and history; our histories are both carved in wood in many of the same ways. What stood out and inspired me was seeing the highly developed wood sculpture during a visit to the Pataka Museum in Wellington. It makes you appreciate more of what both cultures achieved in our arts. With such a rich past, Maori artists still continue to create meaningful art and in many new forms.

12 sold

Spirit of Moko
Stan Bevan
Tlingit
Totara, operculeum, horsehair
7 x 6 x 3"
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A gift of small piece of Totara wood to create a piece for this show using Moko (tattoo) designs within the Northwest Coast formline design.