Alert Bay, British Columbia
The art and culture of the Northwest Coast are alive and well at Alert Bay, home of the ‘Namgis tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation. Fueled by the abundant and highly seasonal resource of salmon returning to the rivers to spawn, the people of the Northwest Coast developed a very rich social and material culture. Individuals were identified by the tribe (village), clan, and subclan to which they belonged. Traditions were passed down orally at the ceremony of the potlatch, held to mark important occasions such as births, marriages, deaths, and transfer of the rights to perform certain songs, dances, and rituals. At the potlatch the host family displayed their cultural wealth. Guests were rewarded (or paid) with gifts for serving as witnesses, thus validating the ceremony. In 1884 the Dominion Government outlawed the potlatch ceremony, believing it to be pagan, wasteful, and counter to the objective of assimilating the native people into mainstream Canadian society. In 1921 forty five people were imprisoned for participating in as potlatch at Village Island. They were released only when they surrendered their ceremonial masks, coppers (a symbolic form of wealth), and other ceremonial objects. The dark period of Native culture had begun.
Today we visited the ‘Namgis people at Alert Bay to serve as witnesses and validate the cultural resurgence that has occurred. We visited the U’mista Cultural Centre where the masks and other regalia, now recovered, are displayed. (The people believe that the objects were too long hidden away in museum cases and storage vaults, so they are now displayed openly and unconfined.) We then went to the newly-constructed Ceremonial Big House, its house poles and painted front copied from the previous house that was destroyed by fire in 1997. There we witnessed some of the dances and songs that make up the potlatch ceremony. Sunlight streamed through the smoke hole to strike the dirt floor of the Big House, where the dancers performed with bare feet, the better to maintain contact with Mother Earth. At the conclusion of the ceremony we joined the ‘Namgis people in a dance of joy and celebration. They have much to celebrate. We were honored to participate and bear witness.
The art and culture of the Northwest Coast are alive and well at Alert Bay, home of the ‘Namgis tribe of the Kwakwaka’wakw Nation. Fueled by the abundant and highly seasonal resource of salmon returning to the rivers to spawn, the people of the Northwest Coast developed a very rich social and material culture. Individuals were identified by the tribe (village), clan, and subclan to which they belonged. Traditions were passed down orally at the ceremony of the potlatch, held to mark important occasions such as births, marriages, deaths, and transfer of the rights to perform certain songs, dances, and rituals. At the potlatch the host family displayed their cultural wealth. Guests were rewarded (or paid) with gifts for serving as witnesses, thus validating the ceremony. In 1884 the Dominion Government outlawed the potlatch ceremony, believing it to be pagan, wasteful, and counter to the objective of assimilating the native people into mainstream Canadian society. In 1921 forty five people were imprisoned for participating in as potlatch at Village Island. They were released only when they surrendered their ceremonial masks, coppers (a symbolic form of wealth), and other ceremonial objects. The dark period of Native culture had begun.
Today we visited the ‘Namgis people at Alert Bay to serve as witnesses and validate the cultural resurgence that has occurred. We visited the U’mista Cultural Centre where the masks and other regalia, now recovered, are displayed. (The people believe that the objects were too long hidden away in museum cases and storage vaults, so they are now displayed openly and unconfined.) We then went to the newly-constructed Ceremonial Big House, its house poles and painted front copied from the previous house that was destroyed by fire in 1997. There we witnessed some of the dances and songs that make up the potlatch ceremony. Sunlight streamed through the smoke hole to strike the dirt floor of the Big House, where the dancers performed with bare feet, the better to maintain contact with Mother Earth. At the conclusion of the ceremony we joined the ‘Namgis people in a dance of joy and celebration. They have much to celebrate. We were honored to participate and bear witness.
