Skidegate House Models
From Haida Gwaii to the Chicago World's Fair and Beyond
This fascinating exploration into the history a nineteenth-century model of a Haida village, carved by Haida artists, offers insights not only into Pacific Northwest history but also into how the Haida represented their culture during a time when that culture threatened by colonial activity.
Mischief Making
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Art, and the Seriousness of Play
In a gorgeously illustrated exploration of the art of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Mischief Making demonstrates how playful and punning gestures can shed light on serious subjects.
So Much More Than Art
Indigenous Miniatures of the Pacific Northwest
So Much More Than Art reveals the fascinating practice of miniaturization in Indigenous Northwest Coast art as a subtle form of communication in the face of oppressive colonization.
The Way Home
Crafted from memories, legends, and art, this powerful memoir tells the uplifting story of an Indigenous man’s struggle to reconnect with his culture and walk in the footsteps of his father and the generations of Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw artists that came before him.
Incorporating Culture
How Indigenous People Are Reshaping the Northwest Coast Art Industry
Incorporating Culture examines what happens when Indigenous people assert control over the commercialization of their art by instilling the market with their communities’ values.
Xwelíqwiya
The Life of a Stó:lo Matriarch
Here the story of a B.C. First Nations woman, whose people were for many years both silent and silenced, is carefully recorded.
Creative Subversions
Whiteness, Indigeneity, and the National Imaginary
This book explores how whiteness and Indigeneity are articulated through commonplace symbols of Canadian identity and how the work of contemporary artists is subverting these nostalgic accounts of the past.
Switchbacks
Art, Ownership, and Nuxalk National Identity
Switchbacks explores how the Nuxalk of Bella Coola, British Columbia, negotiate such complex questions as: Who owns culture? How should culture be transmitted to future generations? Where does selling and buying Nuxalk art fit into attempts to regain control of heritage?
National Visions, National Blindness
Canadian Art and Identities in the 1920s
An insightful analysis of how art was used to create an independent Canadian national identity, often at the expense of First Nations representation.
Unsettling Encounters
First Nations Imagery in the Art of Emily Carr
Featuring almost 300 illustrations, including 90 colour plates, Unsettling Encounters reconstructs a neglected aspect of Carr’s art and is a fresh assessment of her significance as a leading figure in early 20th-century modernism.
Tales of Ghosts
First Nations Art in British Columbia, 1922-61
An insightful examination of the complex functions of Northwest Coast art objects produced between 1922 and 1961, and a vital addition to First Nations and Canadian history.
Privileging the Past
Reconstructing History in Northwest Coast Art
This book explores intellectual issues raised by postmodern theory, supported by detailed studies of projects that will interest a boad audience of students, historians, museum-goers, and those intrigued by Native American art and cultural history.
The Early Years of Native American Art History
The Politics of Scholarship and Collecting
This collection of essays deals with the development of Native American art history as a discipline.
Kwakiutl String Figures
Kwakiutl String Figures will interest students of comparative cultures and will delight all who have time (and string) on their hands.
Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes
The Anthropology of Museums
Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes poses a number of probing questions about the role and responsibility of museums and anthropology in the contemporary world.
Kachina Dolls
Much has been written about the popular kachina dolls carved by the Hopi Indians of northern Arizona, but little has been revealed about the artistry behind them. Now Helga Teiwes describes the development of this art form from early traditional styles to the action-style kachina dolls made popular in galleries throughout the world, and on to the kachina sculptures that have evolved in the last half of the 1980s.
Teiwes explains the role of the Katsina spirit in Hopi religion and that of the kachina dollthe carved representation of a Katsinain the ritual and economic life of the Hopis. In tracing the history of the kachina doll in Hopi culture, she shows how these wooden figures have changed since carvers came to be influenced by their marketability among Anglos and how their carving has been characterized by increasingly refined techniques.
Unique to this book are Teiwes's description of the most recent trends in kachina doll carving and her profiles of twenty-seven modern carvers, including such nationally known artists as Alvin James Makya and Cecil Calnimptewa. Enhancing the text are more than one hundred photographs, including twenty-five breathtaking color plates that bring to life the latest examples of this popular art form.
Chiefs of the Sea and Sky
Haida Heritage Sites of the Queen Charlotte Islands
Presents an overview of extensive research carried out by archeologist George MacDonald in the 1960s and 1970s to document the history of the Haida villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands.
Robes of Power
Totem Poles on Cloth
Not only the first major publication to focus on button blankets, but also the first oral history about them and their place in the culture of the Northwest Coast.
Jack Shadbolt and the Coastal Indian Image
Here is Marjorie Halpin's insightful exploration of Aboriginal motifs in Jack Shadbolt's painting, which reveal his emotional sympathy with Coastal peoples and anticipates the cultural quickening of Aboriginal Canadian society in recent years.
Haida Monumental Art
Villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands
Combining archeology and ethnohistory, this book presents an integrated framework for understanding the physical structure of a Haida village, through remarkable photographs, site plans and detailed descriptions of fifteen major villages