Alert Bay, British Columbia….Blackfish Sound, Killer Whales
Continuing her voyage south, the Sea Lion moved out of Queen Charlotte Sound and into the northern end of Johnstone Strait. The morning was extremely fogy, typical weather for late summer, early fall. Just before breakfast we were on approach to the Government dock located in the center of the community of Alert Bay on Cormorant Island. Our morning would be spent visiting the U’mista cultural Center and this First Nation’s Big House. After breakfast we gathered on the bridge deck to choose between walking to the U’mista cultural center, and riding by van the short distance through town.
We were awestruck entering through beautifully carved and painted doors into quite a large display area of the center. The wall opposite the entry were covered with carved masks, wall hangings, coppers, prints and paddles; all using Northwest Coast form line design in the style of the Kwakaka’wakw people, whose territory we were visiting.
Our group was divided into two sections and the first group was invited into the lower or western end of the museum for an interpretive walk through one of the finest collections of elaborately carved masks, coppers, rattles, and whistles depicting the Potlatch Ceremony of the Kwakwaka’wakw. Tribal member and longtime resident of Alert Bay, Lillian Hunt, guided us through this important collection of ceremonial regalia. The Potlatch is the foundation for a system of laws by which Northwest Coast Native communities have lived from time immemorial. Some aspects of the Potlatch have changed over the years, but the purpose for holding one are often the same today as they were in the past---naming of children, memorializing the dead, transferring rights and privileges, marriages, the raising of totem poles or the opening of Big Houses. The Potlatch is a gathering of people that serves to validate these events before witnesses by the giving of gifts or property. Hence, the highest status of the chiefs amongst the Kwakaka’wakw, was given to those leaders who had the ability to give, to encourage the circulation of wealth within the group. The invited guests are gifted and feasted to say “thank you” for bearing witness to a specific event or occasion.
“When one’s heart is glad, he gives away gifts. It was given to us by our Creator, to be our way of doing things, to be our way of rejoicing, we who are Indian. The Potlatch was given to us to be our way of expressing joy.” -Agnes Alfred, Alert Bay, 1980
But, there was a period of time when these highly valued pieces were not in Alert Bay. Confiscated by the Canadian government in 1921, they remained in storage for many years until the First Nations people of Alert Bay decided to petition the government for the return of their potlatch pieces. In order to have their regalia returned, the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations had to provide a museum to house their treasures. “In earlier days, people were sometimes taken captive by raiding parties. When they returned to their homes, either through payment of ransom or by retaliatory raid, they were said to have “u’mista”. The return of our treasures from distant storage houses and museums is a form of u’mista.”
From the stories we heard in the Cultural Center, our imaginations stimulated. We moved a short distance through the community of Alert Bay to the First Nation’s Big House. A fire had just been started….tribal members were seated at the drum log, and from the back of the Big House Andrea Cranmer and her mother Vera came forward to welcome us and explain the dances we would be privileged to see during the next hour. Amongst native peoples children are considered their greatest resource, and so it was, watching six-year-old Moses Smith, his sisters and cousins, Aunties, and uncles all participating in a time of sharing of the their traditional dances with our group from the Sea Lion. One of the dances involved the bringing in of a “surprise” from the sea…..Andrea Cranmer entered the Big House, coming from the sea as a killer whale, wearing a large carved mask on her head, showing us one of her families crest, and the beautiful motion of a swimming whale! Was this a sign of the afternoon to come? In a few short hours we would know! All too soon we had to return to our waiting vessel at the government dock. On our way out of the Big House, we enjoyed fresh sockeye salmon that had been cooked on the beach, accompanied by banoc or fry bread and freshly made jams and jellies.
Once all guests, staff, and crew were back on board, Sea Lion headed out of Alert Bay and at the end of Cormorant Island we turned east into Blackfish Sound. Within one hour of seeing the killer whale dance in the Big House, we were in the company of I Pod, a group of resident killer whales who call British Columbia their home. We dropped a hydrophone from the bow and watched as a large group of killer whales continually circled the Sea Lion in a cacophony of whale communication….squeaks, whistles, long laughing sounds an endless array of chatter continued through the PA of the ship as the whales moved closer to see who and what we were and we watched their graceful, sometimes playful movement through the water…..reminding us of the movements earlier in the day of a dancer on the floor of the Big House, whose ancestors have watched and listened to the ancestors of I Pod killer whales for many generations.
Continuing her voyage south, the Sea Lion moved out of Queen Charlotte Sound and into the northern end of Johnstone Strait. The morning was extremely fogy, typical weather for late summer, early fall. Just before breakfast we were on approach to the Government dock located in the center of the community of Alert Bay on Cormorant Island. Our morning would be spent visiting the U’mista cultural Center and this First Nation’s Big House. After breakfast we gathered on the bridge deck to choose between walking to the U’mista cultural center, and riding by van the short distance through town.
We were awestruck entering through beautifully carved and painted doors into quite a large display area of the center. The wall opposite the entry were covered with carved masks, wall hangings, coppers, prints and paddles; all using Northwest Coast form line design in the style of the Kwakaka’wakw people, whose territory we were visiting.
Our group was divided into two sections and the first group was invited into the lower or western end of the museum for an interpretive walk through one of the finest collections of elaborately carved masks, coppers, rattles, and whistles depicting the Potlatch Ceremony of the Kwakwaka’wakw. Tribal member and longtime resident of Alert Bay, Lillian Hunt, guided us through this important collection of ceremonial regalia. The Potlatch is the foundation for a system of laws by which Northwest Coast Native communities have lived from time immemorial. Some aspects of the Potlatch have changed over the years, but the purpose for holding one are often the same today as they were in the past---naming of children, memorializing the dead, transferring rights and privileges, marriages, the raising of totem poles or the opening of Big Houses. The Potlatch is a gathering of people that serves to validate these events before witnesses by the giving of gifts or property. Hence, the highest status of the chiefs amongst the Kwakaka’wakw, was given to those leaders who had the ability to give, to encourage the circulation of wealth within the group. The invited guests are gifted and feasted to say “thank you” for bearing witness to a specific event or occasion.
“When one’s heart is glad, he gives away gifts. It was given to us by our Creator, to be our way of doing things, to be our way of rejoicing, we who are Indian. The Potlatch was given to us to be our way of expressing joy.” -Agnes Alfred, Alert Bay, 1980
But, there was a period of time when these highly valued pieces were not in Alert Bay. Confiscated by the Canadian government in 1921, they remained in storage for many years until the First Nations people of Alert Bay decided to petition the government for the return of their potlatch pieces. In order to have their regalia returned, the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations had to provide a museum to house their treasures. “In earlier days, people were sometimes taken captive by raiding parties. When they returned to their homes, either through payment of ransom or by retaliatory raid, they were said to have “u’mista”. The return of our treasures from distant storage houses and museums is a form of u’mista.”
From the stories we heard in the Cultural Center, our imaginations stimulated. We moved a short distance through the community of Alert Bay to the First Nation’s Big House. A fire had just been started….tribal members were seated at the drum log, and from the back of the Big House Andrea Cranmer and her mother Vera came forward to welcome us and explain the dances we would be privileged to see during the next hour. Amongst native peoples children are considered their greatest resource, and so it was, watching six-year-old Moses Smith, his sisters and cousins, Aunties, and uncles all participating in a time of sharing of the their traditional dances with our group from the Sea Lion. One of the dances involved the bringing in of a “surprise” from the sea…..Andrea Cranmer entered the Big House, coming from the sea as a killer whale, wearing a large carved mask on her head, showing us one of her families crest, and the beautiful motion of a swimming whale! Was this a sign of the afternoon to come? In a few short hours we would know! All too soon we had to return to our waiting vessel at the government dock. On our way out of the Big House, we enjoyed fresh sockeye salmon that had been cooked on the beach, accompanied by banoc or fry bread and freshly made jams and jellies.
Once all guests, staff, and crew were back on board, Sea Lion headed out of Alert Bay and at the end of Cormorant Island we turned east into Blackfish Sound. Within one hour of seeing the killer whale dance in the Big House, we were in the company of I Pod, a group of resident killer whales who call British Columbia their home. We dropped a hydrophone from the bow and watched as a large group of killer whales continually circled the Sea Lion in a cacophony of whale communication….squeaks, whistles, long laughing sounds an endless array of chatter continued through the PA of the ship as the whales moved closer to see who and what we were and we watched their graceful, sometimes playful movement through the water…..reminding us of the movements earlier in the day of a dancer on the floor of the Big House, whose ancestors have watched and listened to the ancestors of I Pod killer whales for many generations.
