by Rhonda Lee McIsaac — The countdown is on in Gaaw. For the next 100 days, carvers working on the Totem in the Forest project will be working from sun up ‘til sundown– and probably under flood lights at night – to shape and shave their way into the heart Read more…
Coming out of a winter hibernation and enjoying the solitude and seafood along the beaches is a natural activity for grizzly bears and their cubs, and Old Massett Village Council and the Tluu Xaada Naay Society aim to bring back that world through carved figures on a monumental pole that Read more…
Graham Richard — A 40-foot monumental pole will join Naay I’waans, the centuries-old Haida house in the village of Gasa’aan, late this summer. The Past-Present-Future Pole is a project directed by the community and funded with donations from Rasmuson Foundation and the Sealaska Corporation. The final design was inspired by Read more…
Graham Richard — Over two centuries ago a Haida leader of Yáadaas, a Kuusdek Eagle clan, set out with family and friends in three canoes to round the southern end of Prince of Wales Island. As the sleek canoes went travelling along Xyuu southeast wind suddenly came up and struck them, Read more…
Many secrets loom beneath the surface of the K‘aygang.nga, the canon of Haida ancestral stories. From the time of the glaciers, 14,000 year ago, Kuuniisii our ancestors preserved these records by passing them into the current generation. Through an intergenerational custom of rigorous discipline, historical experts learned to recite the Read more…
By Graham — Work on United Pole at Gya K’id Naay Carving House at Kay Llnagaay is progressing faster than anticipated. “We should be finished in two and a half months,” speculated apprentice carver StllnGa Tyler York as he carefully evens out the cheek on one of the gyaagang’s monumental Read more…
By Graham Richard. Photos by Tawla Jaad — Figures are beginning to take shape on the ‘United’ pole in Tluu Naay Canoe house, at Ḵay Llnagaay. Chip-by-chip, slender cedar slices fall away and collect in the newly created creases and corners of the growing design. The 54-foot pole is now laying face down Read more…
By Tawla Jaad — The students of Gidgalang Kuuyas Naay welcomed the students of Sk’aadgaa Naay Elementary, Agnus L. Mathers Elementary and members of the community to witness the raising of two totem poles at the entrance of their school on June 12. The ceremony started with a powerful Gaagiixid dance Read more…
By Graham Richard — Locals welcomed a large logging truck carrying a 54-foot cedar log into the carving shed at the Haida Heritage Center Monday, May 25. The log was off-loaded and set on blocks. Now, carver Garner Moody will spend at least five months transforming the log into 45-foot-tall Read more…
Five years of effort came to fruition Saturday, March 7 with the presentation of Gwaai and Jaalen Edenshaw’s replica of a Haida artistic masterpiece known as “The Great Box”. With the aim of learning as much as possible about the original artist’s style and his use of formline, the two Read more…