My friend, Betsy MacFarlane, in Ketchikan, Alaska first told me about the Maoris in the eighties while I was teaching there.  She told me about their culture and how close it is to ours. Since then I have wanted to go to New Zealand and see the old art of the Maoris and to met the people and to see their beautiful land.

I did have the opportunity to meet Garry Nicholas of Toi Maori in Ottawa at a gathering of native artists, and then I met him again in the cafeteria at the "Return to the Swing" Conference of Pacific Rim Artists (exhibition now traveling as the Hiteemlkiliiksix - Within the Circle of the Rim - Nations Gathering on Common Ground) at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He asked, "weren't you in Ottawa and weren't you supposed to come to New Zealand?"  That is how I got to go to New Zealand - to accept an invitation from Toi Maori to attend the Wellington Festival of the Arts in 2002. Given my experience there, I immediately planned a return visit in early 2003 to attend the Toi Maori Festival of the Arts in Christchurch.

The workshop at the Evergreen State College and in New Zealand was a unique and a great creative experience; there was great creative energy and sharing. This was one of the highlights of my life in art.

Seeing the Maori culture up close, and by being with them, made me see and respect my own culture more.  It opened a door for me in my work that cannot be closed again. Our experience together as artists was magical and powerful. Great art comes from good and great people.  One of the highlights of my trip was meeting Ben Mamaku and the Waka Federation (the canoe people!) at the village of Te Teko near Rotorua.  It was a very powerful experience I will never forget. Maoris are great artists!

There is an ancient story about three Maori warriors who came with the trade winds in their canoe to the Ehattenaht village of my grandfather. They stayed for three years waiting for the winds to change and carry them home. Two Nuu-chah-nulth canoes were carved and they were presented with three wives before returning to Aotearoa, forever linking our two nations.

In 1990, I traveled to the north shore of Auckland to raise a totem pole at the Awataha Marae commissioned by the Province of British Columbia and the Royal British Columbia Museum for the Commonwealth Games in 1990, and was met by approximately 2000 Maori warriors as my welcome to Aotearoa - and permission to distribute our wealth in a distant land.

"Saa-Yaa-Cit-Tu" The Ocean way Off Shore with the Tradewinds Blowing the Maori Canoe Towards Home
Tim Paul
Nuu-chah-nulth (Hesquiat)
Red cedar
26 x 25 x 5"
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The circle is now complete - we as a family are one. The totem pole that was brought to Awataha was from a great family and Hesquiat history. Two important figures on the totem pole: the Wolf (the first-born son), and the Killer Whale on the Hupa kwa num (Chief's treasure box), have the same spirit. They are one. We brought our crown, our great headdresses, and the sea serpent that is our identity. From Tachu, the house of Tilh-wus, three Maori men came with the warm trade winds to my grandfather's home from my mother's side and stayed with my family for three years until the trade winds came back. My family gave them two canoes and each of the three Maori men went home with a wife from our family and homeland. The white designs are our roots - Maori and Tilh-wis.

Salish Loom
Susan Point
Coast Salish (Musqueam)
Glass, yellow cedar
80 x 32 x 18"
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SUSAN POINT
COAST SALISH

As a representative of the host nation of Musqueam, I am pleased to be invited to share in this landmark exhibition. In April 0f 2003 I visited Aotearoa and met with a number of artists in the show. I was also aware of the invitation to make a piece for the show based on my Maori experience and I returned with great energy and many ideas.

Salish Loom:
Susan Point's Salish Loom is inspired by her people's traditions and artistic legacy. While she is perhaps one of the first in her family in generations not to be a weaver, Susan sees many of the decorated implements and utilitarian items of her ancestors with an appreciation of their sculptural qualities, rather than just the functional purpose.

This mixed medium Salish Loom further demonstrates her love for form as well as function.

Children of the Earth Pacific Spirit 2001
Susan Point
Coast Salish (Musqueam)
Glass, yellow cedar
68 x 45 x 5" (approx)

For the last fourteen years, Susan has designed the logos for the Pacific Spirit Run, which is a fundraising event for local hospital charities. The year 2001 was the twelfth consecutive year that Susan Point has supported this event by designing the logo and allowing the image to be used for race jerseys and promotions. Subsequently, she has often produced a limited edition print of these images, and on a few occasions, has released the painting and a limited edition poster of the image.

The "Children of the Earth" image was produced as a limited edition serigraph in 2001, but Susan felt that she needed to explore the image further in more dimension. As a result, Susan carved this yellow cedar spindle whorl featuring this image combined with glass components to reemphasize her motives for creating the image. Susan believes that we are all children of Mother Earth and One Family - and is hopeful that this message is visually conveyed through her imagery.

Susan has since designed a new image for 2002 and 2003.

Sacred Weave (Edition 50)
Susan Point
Coast Salish (Musqueam)
Limited edition Puzzle Woodblock
27.5 x 27"

Susan has always been interested in what she calls the "grass roots visual language." She has observed the many parallels exist all over the world in tribal arts, with virtually the same motifs, carving styles, and mythical images occurring in many different cultures. Fascinated by the realization that some pieces that she has seen in museums could be mistaken for her own ancestral art if it were to be displayed in that context, she immediately recognizes artistic similarities with the Mapache, New Guinea, Annu, Afrikpo, and the Maori cultures. The Sacred Weave presented here is an attempt to connect the Salish and the Maori by using a large woven format, representative of basketry, which was a common practice in both cultures. The motifs within the weave relate to the circle of life, on and above Mother Earth, and elements of the continuing cycles of change.

Mirror Image (Edition 99)
Susan Point
Coast Salish (Musqueam)
Limited edition Serigraph
39 x 13.5"

These paddle designs incorporate motifs of both the Salish and Maori, connecting and hopefully mirroring the commonalities of our cultures. Our mutual respect for our ancestral heritage, our Mother Earth, and all life that is a constant part of us, is a link that we share and pass on to each new generation. In this design (hammerhead shark intersecting with salmon motifs), my attempt at Maori imagery is only symbolic and respectfully serves as a welcome motif.the origin and proper interpretation of this important design rightfully belonging to the domain of the Maori experts.

A Gift for Qulqulil - Comb
Susan Point
Coast Salish (Musqueam)
Red cedar
82 x 31 x 4"

This is the story of Qulqulil. She was a woman of unusually large size, a freak of nature, who was shunned by the villagers and ultimately cast out by them. As is so often the case in human affairs, the ordinary could not suffer the extra-ordinary. So Qulqulil, who had no relatives, was condemned to live the life of a hermit, deep in the forest far away from human contact. Nobody knew where. Her only friends were the birds and animals of the forest.

Qulqulil would roam along the beach to escape the gloom of the forest to behold the glory of the ocean and commune with the spirit of the wind. Walking along the beach one day, her large body awkwardly plodding through the coarse sand, she came across some village children who had been swimming, but were now basking their bodies in the brilliant sunlight. One of the older boys sat on a rock by the water and was shaving with a clamshell. Qulqulil, out of sight, watched them for some time. As she stood silently observing the children, an intense longing for human company swelled up in her heart. She moved closer with the caution and intensity of a predatory animal stalking its prey. Suddenly, like a bolt of lightening from a clear sky, she swooped down upon her unsuspecting victims. This fearful apparition paralyzed the children - and before they knew what happened, Qulqulil had caught them all and put them in a large snake basket, which she carried on her back.

Quickly leaving the beach, she sought the cover of the dense forest to start the long way home. As she walked along the trail, the older boy who had been shaving with the clamshell began to cut a hole in the bottom of the basket. He finally had a hole big enough to allow some of the children to drop out of the basket and escape. As they did, they could not but help making some noise, and Qulqulil, whose senses were acute from her solitude, stopped. Taking the basket from her shoulders, she opened the lid to make sure the children were still there. As the lid of the basket opened and Qulqulil's large face appeared, she brought terror in the hearts of the children. But, as the remaining children covered the hole in the basket with their bodies, Qulqulil thought all was in order, closed the lid and continued the journey home.

On arriving home, Qulqulil did not wish her young captives to escape, so she immediately proceeded to smear pitch from the wild cherry tree over the eyes of the children. By robbing them of their eyesight, she hoped she would discourage any attempt by the children to make a run for it. However, the eldest girl pressed her eyelids so tightly together that when Qulqulil applied the pitch her eyes were not completely sealed and she was able to see.

Several days later, at that time past twilight when the night has firmly drawn the earth to its bosom, Qulqulil and the children sat around the fire. But for the sharp crackling of the fire, the forest was completely silent and the stars stood prominently overhead. The silence was only broken when one of the young children asked Qulqulil to dance around the fire. The other children joined in and they all urged her to dance. Qulqulil rose and began to dance in a cumbersome, rhythmic motion around the fire, her large body casting a ghostly shadow on the surrounding forest. Suddenly, without warning, the children rose and pushed her into the fire and made their escape. Falling into the fire, Qulqulil screamed, "Please help me, my young brothers and sisters, I was only trying to help you." She desperately struggled to get away from the fire - but her hair had been set alight, and as the flames consumed her long black hair, the lice jumped from her scalp and were miraculously transformed into tiny birds that flew into the gloom of the night...a wondrous sight to behold.

Qulqulil survived and managed to keep two of the boys captive. One day she told the boys to accompany her on a duck hunt. The boys, determined to escape, quickly devised a clever scheme: Before leaving on the hunt, they placed extra bulrush mats on the seat of the canoe on which Qulqulil would sit, thus raising the centre of gravity and making the canoe very unstable. As they reached the hunting ground at Point Grey, Qulqulil, by a stroke of luck, dozed off. The boys began to rock the boat with all their might, and while the violent motion roused Qulqulil from her sleep, in her bewilderment she was not able to steady the canoe - and with a piercing scream she fell overboard.

Qulqulil could not swim. With her arms flailing in a pathetic attempt to stay afloat, in her panic she cried out, "please have pity on me, please have pity on me!" But the lure of freedom stifled any pity the boys might have felt, and grabbing their paddles the boys turned the canoe to the direction of the shore. Yet in a curious way, perhaps because their conscience was unsettled by their violent act, the boys shouted: "We are trying - but the strength of the current will not allow us to get to where you are and save you." But they had no intention of returning, and left Qulqulil to die.

It is still said that the reason why the waters at Point Grey are so rough is because the spirit of Qulqulil still restlessly roams the water in which she was drowned.

I had the opportunity to visit Aotearoa in the spring of 2003 and visited many of the artists in this exhibition. I accepted an invitation to attend the Toi Maori Arts Festival held in Christchurch. I was amazed by how much the Maori culture was like our own. Stories, clans, ways of living, much of the art and the tools were all similar, and the people bear many traits to the people of the north. We can relate to this very powerful culture that is like ours.