large format photo exhibition by Karl Frost
March through June 2025
lobby of Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
open 9h-17h Monday-Friday
In precolonial times, Xaad Kil (Haida language) was spoken by the matrilineal First Nations clans on the islands of Haida Gwaii, just below Alaska, in what is now British Columbia, Canada. Like other First Nations, Haida life centered around the seasonal bounty of salmon. This structured life into intense work and harvest periods spring through fall with extensive leisure time in winter for art-making and ceremony. The Haida were the epicenter of the complex art system that came to be known as “form line”, with wood and stone carving, painting, and weaving. The Haida traded their art works around the region. Although claimed by Great Britain, through the mid 1800s, the region was autonomous from European colonizers, with Haida clans through military force having control of their own resources, territories, and trade. In the late 1800s though, 90% of the Haida died from smallpox and flu, which led to consolidation into two villages, British/Canadian colonial domination, and subsequently many decades of resistance to cultural suppression from the Canadians.
The Haida have been among the most militant First Nations in reasserting sovereignty. In 1985, Haida and non-indigenous allies occupied the island of Athlii Gwaii to stop corporate logging of their territories. This direct action resistance led first to the establishment of a united government of the Council of the Haida Nation and Haida control of the land and marine protected areas of Gwaii Haanas and then eventually, through legal fights, political negotiation, and public relations work to the historic agreements with BC and Canada this last year recognizing their sovereignty on all of their traditional territory.
Haida clan membership is defined through the mother’s line. While men traditionally held the position of litl’xaaydaGa (“hereditary chief”), the role is considered as diplomat and spokesperson for clan and matriarchs rather than authority. Governance and clan business are organized through potlatches… feasts with song, dance, stories sharing oral history and speeches communicating gratitude, clan intentions, and governance decisions. Guests of the feast hall are honored with gifts in exchange for their legitimizing witness of clan business.
Photo: Karl Frost
The exhibition photos were taken between 2016 and 2022, mostly from the Yahgulaanas/jaanas and Staa’stas clans, from traditional territories, feasts, art, and life.
Jim Hart pole
pole facing Masset Inlet in front of the long house style house of Jim Hart (litl’xaaydaGa Edenshaw)
Old Massett, 2022
Longhouses and pole at Yan
long houses and pole at Yan, built as an act of reclaiming the old village site across Massett Inlet from Old Massett.
2022
White raven mask dancer
White raven mask dancer at the feast “Raven Always Sets Things Right”, held by the Yahgulaanas/Jaanas clan to correct and put a stop to the corrupting influence of extractive industry money on First Nations leadership.
Old Massett 2016
For information on this historic feast, visit the blog…
https://www.weeatfish.org/raven-always-sets-things-right/
Christian White carving argelyte
Yahgulaanas master carver and community leader, Christian White (Kihlyahda), carving argelyte in his studio.
Old Massett 2022
Frog mask dancer
Frog mask dancer at the Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Yahgujaanas elder
walking Norma Adams, a Yahgujaanas elder from the Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
While the matriarchs are not officially performing governance at the feast, elders and especially the matriarchs are honored continuously at the feast. Without announcement, all rose to their feet as an elder was walked home (the feasts are rather long things and can be a bit tiring).
Also in the photo are Georgia Bennett and Svea Poulson of the Yahgulaanas. Georgia is one of the most well known Haida chilkat weavers, carrying here one her woven blankets.
Old Massett 2022
Ginaawaan holding the copper, “Raven Always Sets Things Right”
The First Nations of BC, being the subject of Canadian cultural suppression for many decades, have suffered from problems of industrial and government money corrupting indigenous leadership and/or convincing individual indigenous people to falsely represent themselves as authorities for their people.
In 2016, the Yahgulaanas/jaanas Haida raven clan held the feast, “Raven Always Sets Tings Right” to correct and put a stop to the corrupting influence of extractive industry money on First Nations leadership. In the feast 3 clan litl’xaaydaGa were stripped of their names and position for having taken industry money in exchange for support of oil transportation through their territories against the wishes of the clan. This was a historic action, the first potlatch of its kind in modern times and representatives came from First Nations throughout BC to witness, learn from, and hold up this historic action confronting a common problem. The feast also reiterated that the position of litl’xaaydaGa is not that of authority or decider, but as representative of clan and matriarchs who have no authority to make and pronounce decisions on their own.
Here litl’xaaydaGa Ginaawaan (Darin Swanson) holds the copper on which are now inscribed the duties of litl’xaaydaGa.
In Haida culture a name is passed down through the years, sometimes with specific honors and duties associated. Ginaawaan is the head litl’xaaydaGa of the Yahgulaanas/jaanas clan. The Haida are matrilineal, and so a litl’xaaydaGa’s children will not be of the same clan. Upon retirement or death the name and leadership role is generally passed down to the eldest son of the litl’xaaydaGa’s eldest sister, if they are accepted by the clan to be ready for it. Carver Ernie Swanson, the son of Darin’s sister Crystal and the planned future Ginaawaan, stands behind Darin.
Old Massett 2016
For information on this historic feast, visit the blog…
https://www.weeatfish.org/raven-always-sets-things-right/
Heiltsuk blanket dancer
Heiltsuk dancer twirling her blanket at the Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Haida women dancing
Haida women dancers at the Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Masset 2022
Haida woman dancer
Haida woman dancing at the Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Masset 2022
Frog mask dancer 2016
Frog mask dancer at the feast “Raven Always Sets Things Right”, held by the Yahgulaanas/Jaanas clan to correct and put a stop to the corrupting influence of extractive industry money on First Nations leadership.
Old Massett 2016
For information on this historic feast, visit the blog…
https://www.weeatfish.org/raven-always-sets-things-right/
Georgia Bennett weaving
Georgia Bennett is a renowned Haida chilkat weaver, making blankets and other items of regalia for ceremony and feasts. The art features a translation of the First Nations formline art into the medium of weaving, making for a remarkably complex form of weaving. In pre-colonial times, weaving was usually done with mountain goat wool or the hair of special breeds of dog, but today sheep wool is usually used. Fur of sea otter or other animals was often used for accents.
Old Massett 2016
Heiltsuk blanket dancer
Visiting Heiltsuk dancer twirling her blanket at the Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Skidegate dancers
visiting Skidegate Haida dancers at the Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Carver dancing
An apprentice carver dances to celebrate the raising of the new pole Tluu Xaada Nay, carved by Yahgulaanas master carver Christian White (Kihlyahda) and apprentices during the Covid lockdown years
Old Massett 2022
Rennel Sound
driftwood at Rennell Sound
Graham Island, Haida Gwaii 2018
Robert cutting salmon
Fisherman Robert Bennett filets a salmon in preparation for preserving.
The Pacific Northwest is bountiful in salmon, and Haida life is traditionally organized around salmon harvest, with busy spring, summer and fall and winters for ceremony and art making.
Old Massett 2022
Tluu Xaada Nay pole
newly raised Tluu Xaada Nay pole, raised to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
early morning after the pole raising feast
Old Massett 2022
Jordan painting a mask
Haida carver Jordon Seward paints details on a cedar mask. The formline art style can be 2 dimensional (or 2 dimensional projected onto 3 dimensional surfaces) in the form painting or surface carving or 3 dimensional in the form of deeper surface carving as on totem poles or carving of 3 dimensional objects like masks and rattles. It is usually done on wood (usually cedar or sometimes yew), but sometimes also in argelyte a soft black stone found only on Haida Gwaii.
Old Massett 2016
Marlene Liddle Weaving a hat
The cedar weaving among the Haida has always been considered among the best if not the best in the region. The weaving of the cedar bark is done so tightly that the result is water proof, important for life in the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Marlene Liddle, here weaving a traditional cedar bark hat, is one of the best known Haida master cedar bark weavers in the region.
Old Massett 2016
Shark mask dancer
Shark mask dancer. In front of the mask dancer is a partner with a rattle, something usual for mask dancing. The rattle helps guide the mask dancer through the space as the masks can limit the vision of the dancer. The rattle also has historically served a function both as a theatrical element as a functional aide in trance induction.
‘at the Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Paddle strike
Haida woman dancing a warrior dance, embodying the act of paddling the canoe and using the paddle as a weapon, something common in historical raiding, common in pre-colonial times among the Northwest coast First Nations.
Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Beaver mask dancer
Beaver mask dancer at Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Moon mask dancer
Moon mask dancer as part of procession of mask dancers honoring the gathered chiefs and other guests of the feast. at Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Rattle
Cedar rattle carved by and held by master carver Jim Hart (Edenshaw) at Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Miles carving Argelyte
Haida carver Miles Edgar carving an argelyte pendant. while most carvers work primarily with wood, some also work in argelyte or in silver. Miles works almost entirely with argelyte. Argelyte is a soft black stone found on Haida Gwaii. While it was used occasionally in precolonial times for bowls and other special items, the coming of white traders created a new industry for trade in argelyte carvings which were small and durable and thus well suited for early trade.
Argelyte carvings are still sold to art collectors and museums.
Old Massett 2016
Reg carving cedar mask
Reg Davidson, along with his brother, Robert Davidson, carved and raised the first modern totem pole, doing it as an act of cultural reclaiming, revitalization, and resistance after many decades in which being seen with any form of regalia or cultural artifacts or performing a potlatch could get you arrested. This set off a renaissance of carving of poles and masks throughout the region.
Here, Reg carves a cedar mask in his shop. Regi is up by 4am or 5am every morning so he can have a few peaceful hours of carving before others are up and he gets to other business like fishing or making his famous sushi plates.
Old Massett 2019
long house on Yan
one of two small long houses built at the old village site of Yan, across Massett Inlet from Old Massett. the long houses were built and a pole was raised as an act of reclaiming the village site.
Yan 2022
Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising
Community come together to help in raising a new Yahgulaanas pole, Tluu Xaada Nay, carved by master carver Christian White (Kihlyada) and apprentices during the Covid lockdown.
Old Massett 2022
Jim Hart carving Reconciliation Pole
Master carver Jim Hart (Edenshaw) working on the Reconciliation Pole, commissioned by UBC to commemorate the painful history of white colonial/First Nations relations. The pole tells the story of precolonial occupation of the lands by First Nations, contact, conflict, disease, cultural suppression, resistance, and the slow process of reconciliation. the rectilinear figure to his left is a residential school, where First Nations children who had been stolen from their families were abused and indoctrinated to abandon their culture, language, and identity to be lower class parts of Canadian society. In the finished product, thousands of copper nails are put into the residential school , hammere dinto the school by residential school survivors to represent the thousands of children who died in these schools.
The pole currently stands on the UBC campus.
Old Massett 2017
Men dancing
It is traditional at Haida feasts for their to be specific dances for the men and for the women, both of the host clan and visitors. The men’s dance is particularly athletic with jumps and deep squats meant to show off strength and endurance while celebrating together.
Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Tyler carving pole
Tyler York, carver apprentice to master carver Jaalen, carving a pole that will end up in a museum in Whistler.
Tyler is also well known as one of the areas best basketball players, which is no small thing, considering the centrality of the game of basketball to the coastal First Nations, with the All Nations basketball tournament being one of the biggest events of the year for the last several generations. He also starred in the film “Edge of the Knife” , the first feature length film in the Haida language, filmed at Yan.
Massett 2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_of_the_Knife
Jim Hart (Edenshaw)
Master carver and Staa’stas clan litl’xaaydaGa (chief) Edenshaw, Jim Hart, carrying his carved cedar rattle in a procession at Tluu Xaada Nay pole raising feast to celebrate the Yahgulaanas clan, master carver Kihlyahda (Christian White), the raising of the Tluu Xaad Nay pole, and the apprentices who spent the covid years carving the pole.
Old Massett 2022
Skidegate dancers