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Káxláya Gvi’ílás

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) unveils Káxláya Gvi’ílás, an important new exhibition of art and culture from the Heiltsuk Nation of British Columbia’s Pacific Northwest Coast, on Wednesday, June 21, 2000 (National Aboriginal Day in Canada), in the Museum’s Gallery of Indigenous Peoples. This unique exhibition celebrates the voices of the contemporary Heiltsuk community and is the first museum exhibition of Heiltsuk art and culture ever mounted, featuring works by present-day artists and artifacts from the ROM’s anthropological collections of Northwest Coast art.

The Heiltsuk Nation lies at the centre of British Columbia’s Northwest Coast, some 300 miles northwest of Vancouver. The descendants of the original Heiltsuk tribes live at Bella Bella on Campbell Island, a community where 1,248 Heiltsuk people now live, and at Klemtu, a village on Swindle Island. An additional 800 Heiltsuk live outside the community. The geographically diverse Heiltsuk Territory consists of over 13,800 square miles of islands, land and sea on the central coast of British Columbia, where they have lived continuously for over 9,000 years. At the time of their contact with Europeans, the Heiltsuk were widely respected for their artistic and cultural achievements, and their navigational, trading and maritime skills. However, over the 19th and 20th centuries, they came close to being decimated by foreign diseases, social and economic forces. Despite their central position and significance, the art and culture of the Heiltsuk is not well known to non-native Canadians today.

Káxláya Gvi’ílás features approximately 50 objects from the ROM’s collection of Heiltsuk art, which have never before been comprehensively exhibited, and 15 works by contemporary Heiltsuk artists. The title, in the Heiltsuk language, translates as “the ones who uphold the laws of our ancestors”. It is a central goal of this exhibition to present the extraordinary artistic history of these people as experienced by today’s Heiltsuk community, in their own voices.

The works are presented together with an introductory video, archival and contemporary photographs, and audio recordings which provide a rich context for Heiltsuk community members’ memories of the artists and the role of art in their lives today. The ROM artifacts come from the Museum’s R.W. Large Collection, and include brightly painted masks, carved figures, boxes, baskets, bows, walking sticks and staffs, musical instruments, jewellery, and tools and fishing gear. The Reverend Dr. R.W. Large, a Methodist missionary, arrived at Bella Bella in 1898 and sent 284 Heiltsuk artifacts to the Ontario Provincial Museum in 1901 and 1906, some of which were very well documented.

The exhibition begins with an introductory statement written by the Heiltsuk Tribal Council to answer the question “who are we?”. It emphasizes the five Heiltsuk artists named in the R.W. Large collection, relates their works to the families of these artists, and links their art to contemporary Heiltsuk culture through interviews with other present-day artists and community members. The exhibition includes a historical overview with a discussion of the impact of European contact on the Heiltsuk people. Other themes explored in the exhibition include: the story of how the R.W. Large Collection came to the ROM; the feelings Heiltsuk people have about the storage of their material outside of their community; and, the inter-connectedness of art to the family and community, to their traditional ceremonies and to their resources in the land and the sea. The final section addresses the importance of Heiltsuk art to the survival and well-being of the Heiltsuk Nation.

Curator and co-curator for this unique exhibition are Pam Brown, Curator of Ethnology and Media at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, and Martha Black, Curator of Ethnology at the Royal British Columbia Museum and author of the book “Bella Bella: A Season of Heiltsuk Art” (available at the ROM Shop for $ 45.00). Ken Lister, Acting Head of the ROM’s Anthropology Department, is the ROM’s curatorial spokesperson for this exhibition. During this same period, the ROM is sending a complementary traveling exhibit, based also on the ROM’s collections, to the Heiltsuk Cultural Education Centre in Bella Bella. These exhibitions were produced in collaboration with the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, the Heiltsuk Cultural Education Centre, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Royal British Columbia Museum.

 

 

Issue date:
April 20, 2000

For more information:
Media Relations
Tel.: 416.586.5547
Fax: 416.586.8022
E-mail: media@rom.on.ca

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