On April 30, 2012 the Audrey & Harry Hawthorn Library & Archives at the Museum of Anthropology learned that the National Archival Development Program (NADP) has been eliminated as a result of the most recent round of cuts to the heritage sector initiated by the federal government. The elimination of this 1.7 million dollar grant program will have a devastating effect on the ability of archival institutions across the country to engage in the vital work that allows them to preserve and to make accessible their holdings to the public. This funding was not a simple hand-out, but was leveraged by individual institutions with cash and in-kind contributions to complete projects that bring value to all Canadians. The NADP also funded our provincial database of archival holdings, MemoryBC, and enabled provincial and territorial archival councils to provide education, advisory and preservation services to archival institutions at the regional level. With the elimination of NADP funding these services are unlikely to continue.

The Audrey & Harry Hawthorn Library & Archives has directly benefited from NADP funding. In 2008 we were able to hire a short-term archivist to process and create a finding aid for the Vickie Jensen and Jay Powell fonds. This large set of records includes over 5 metres of textual records, 28,000 photographs and 500 audio recordings which were amassed over three decades of living and working with First Nations communities to help revitalize and preserve indigenous languages. The Jensen and Powell fonds is of vital importance to the cultural heritage of Canada’s First Nations and received a designation of Canadian Cultural Property in 2010 due to its outstanding significance and national importance.

Chief William T. Cranmer's potlatch, 1983, Alert Bay, British Columbia.
Photographer: Vickie Jensen. Vickie Jensen and Jay Powell fonds, a005436c

More recently, the NADP funded a project to digitize a collection of open reel audio recordings, including field recordings from the 1950s and 1960s containing First Nations songs and stories. This collection of recordings also includes lectures and talks by noted Northwest Coast artists such as Bill Reid, Robert Davidson, Roy Vickers and others. With the creation of digital copies, we are able to make our audio recordings accessible to indigenous communities, scholars and the general public. However, this project is about more than just digitizing a specific collection of audio materials, it is also about creating the infrastructure and means to assist indigenous communities to address their own analog holdings. To this end, MOA partnered with the First Nations Technology Council (an Irving K. Barber Learning Centre funded project), who supplied equipment for the NADP project, in exchange for MOA and the Oral History Language Lab developing a tool-kit to assist with digitization at the community level. This important initiative began with seed money from the NADP, but will continue to benefit the preservation of indigenous heritage at the community level.

Xelsilem Rivers, digitization intern, working on an NADP funded project
to digitize MOA's open reel audio holdings.

This project also received coverage on CBC’s The National: Xelsilem Rivers and Oral Histories: Saving Languages in 2012

With the loss of the National Archival Development Program the types of project described above will be difficult, if not impossible, to complete in the future. The Audrey & Harry Hawthorn Library & Archives are devastated by the loss of these funding opportunities, as are hundreds of other archival institutions across the country. Archives and the documentary heritage they safeguard, are integral to fostering a sense of democracy, in knowing ourselves and keeping traditions, languages and cultures alive.

If Archives are important to you, please consider the following advocacy initiatives:

• Canadian Council of Archives Call to Action
• Make it Better – Write a Letter: Help Save Canada’s National Archival Development Program

To carry out this work, MOA engaged Xelsilem Rivers, a Squamish/Kwakwaka’wakw artist, writer, activist, blogger, cultural educator, and language enthusiast. Below is the text of a blog Xelsilem wrote about his internship at MOA. For more information on his research, please visit www.SquamishLanguage.com

Indigitization at MOA

By Xelsilem Rivers

I am an indigenous person who is extremely passionate about cultural resurgence in my community, about decolonizing, and reclaiming our old ways. My chosen path has identified my ancestral languages as one of the areas where I can help my people.

I am presented with constant challenges working on language revitalization. The language of my people is considered critically endangered. I have few people that I can regularly go sit with to hear the beauty, rhythm, or “song” of the language. A language is more than a set of grammatical rules – it has a song, a flow, a cadence. It’s the accent and tone. With so few options to hear, or become immersed in my language, the recordings of our elders have become invaluable.

Reel-to-reel technology was once a primary tool for recording First Nations language and oral histories in British Columbia. Now, 60 years after its advent, it has become apparent that this media has a shelf-life – it will someday decay beyond repair. Collections of analog tapes are held by First Nations Communities, organizations and families. If, tapes that may contain the last known recording of a song, or the last unique spoken-word of an endangered language should the reels decay beyond repair this rich cultural content would be lost forever.

Digitization of open reel media from the MOA Archives is the work I have been doing as the Digitization Intern here. Digitization is transferring analog media (things like audio reels or cassettes) to become digital media (like wave or mp3 files). In my work I’ve uncovered recordings of traditional singing by elders, language interviews, and oral histories containing legends and stories. The recordings also includes lectures, interviews and talks with noted anthropologists, artists, and people who had been involved with UBC and MOA (Wayne Suttles, Audrey Hawthorn, Bill Reid, Homer Barnett, etc.)

The MOA Centre for Cultural Research and The First Nations Technology Council received funding from the Irving K. Baker Learning Centre at UBC and the National Archival Development Program to create a “First Nations Digitization Toolkit”. At MOA, we have been developing a portable digitization system for First Nations communities. This system will assist them in preserving and digitizing their own valuable oral histories and language recordings.

Indigenous languages are in a critical state. Numerous academics have worked with elders and community members to document and preserve oral history. These recordings hold the voices of elders who may have been born prior to 1900, and possibly knew people born just after the 18th century. (For most of the British Columbia coast, contact occurred around the 1770’s). Community members, cultural leaders, and other researchers need to have access to the knowledge and history preserved on these recordings.

This project addresses the need to support researchers to access recorded oral histories such as . interviews with elders, language recordings, and traditional songs. These recordings carry valuable information and histories about our ancestors. Through digitization they can be preserved and accessed by researchers and community members for generations to come. We want to ensure our history and knowledge can be passed on, and we thank our ancestors for the foresight to see the importance in documenting and preserving our rich history and culture.

Joining us is curator, author, and scholar Paul Chaat Smith, who is currently Associate Curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Paul Chaat Smith has written the books Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong and Like a Hurricane: the Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee. His writinh focuses on the landscapes, politics, and cultures of the American Indian. Paul Chaat Smith encourages others to “hit the reset button about Native discourse.” His work is powered by the desire to create this kind of awareness and instil a new way of thinking. He addresses the inspiration for Everything You Know about Indians is Wrong in this Q&A with Paul Chaat Smith. 

Photo courtesy Paul Chaat Smith, National Museum of the American Indian.

Louie Gong, artist

Another notable contributor to the Dialogue, Remixing Art and Indigeneity, Again, is art icon, educator, and activist Louie Gong. He is the founder of the company Eighth Generation, which infuses traditional Coast Salish art with icons from popular culture. Gong strives to make impacting impressions about identity by clashing cultural concepts of different worlds. The work below by Louie Gong is called “Wolf-Chucks”. Louie has many other, one-of-a-kind, authentic youth inspired designs which can be admired on his website: www.eighthgeneration.com

On March 28th, singer-songwriter Pete Martin emailed MOA with a song he wrote called, “I am the Salford Totem Pole”. The song is about a totem pole carved by Doug Cranmer in 1969 for a commission given to him by the (no longer existing) Manchester Liners. The pole was an emblem created with the aim of representing and celebrating the history of trade between Canada and the United Kingdom. The pole was brought back to the United Kingdom and stood in Salford until it was taken down due to weather damage in 2005. Somehow, the totem ended up in a warehouse in Salford Quays until it was found by  Councillor Steve Coen who requested it be displayed again in Salford proper and restored.

This link connects to an interview done on the day the totem pole was removed from the warehouse it was housed in and moved to its restoration location in December 2009:

http://www.salfordonline.com/totempole_page/16958-video:_salford_totem_pole_finally_moves_home_(part_8).html

Kevin Cranmer, Doug Cranmer’s nephew, and his cousin Edgar Cranmer worked with Bruce Alfred in the summer of 2010 to restore the pole. Originally carved from British Columbian Pine (most totem poles are carved from red cedar), the three carvers used planks of cedar  to restore the damaged fragments of Doug Cranmer’s original pole. On July 1st, 2010, the fully restored pole was displayed in Trafalgar Square in London in collaboration with the Canadian Embassy on Canada Day.

This link connects to an interview the three carvers did just before they started the restoration in 2010:

http://www.salfordonline.com/totempole_page/21236-video:_kevin_cranmer_and_friends_arrive_back_in_salford_to_start_restoration_work_on_totem_pole.html

With the restoration complete, the pole was brought back to Stanford in early 2011. There was some deliberation over where it would be raised. There is an outlet mall that is a popular gathering place for the public and the decision was made to raise it there.

Here is a link showing Kevin Cranmer re-awakening the pole to be raised: http://www.dreamscope.tv/additional/salford-totem-pole

This last clip shows the people of Salford voicing their thoughts as to where the pole should be raised. Currently, it is on show in the Museum Of Museums at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, UK, just beside Salford, but will be returning to its adoptive home in the coming months where it will be given a permanent location.

http://www.salfordonline.com/totempole_page/26736-video:_salford_streettalk_on_salford’s_totem_pole.html

It is fascinating for us at MOA to see Doug Cranmer’s work celebrated so enthusiastically in a place so far away from where Cranmer’s first “exhibition” is being held. This is a quote from Richard Sumner that, I feel, best encompasses the majesty and tone of the Salford Totem Pole, Pete Martin’s song and Doug Cranmer himself. The discovery of something so international contrasted to Cranmer’s humble nature make this even more extraordinary.

“I think he just liked to fly below the radar. He was happy if he had a glass, his car, a pack of smokes and a bottle of scotch. He’d leave all the glory to everybody else. He wasn’t really one to toot his own horn. It’s up to us to do it.” –Richard Sumner.

Photo by Vickie Jensen

Courtesy of U'mista Cultural Society and the Audrey and Harry Hawthorn Library and Archive, MOA A002261C, Photo by Vickie Jensen

To those he mentored, Doug Cranmer’s teaching style was reflective of his individual personality. Many of his students remember his strict emphasis on technique, detail, achieving equilibrium while not over-doing the design, and his mantra to ‘never lose the centre line.’ Despite these firm guidelines, Doug encouraged his students to experiment with their carvings, trying to get them to really see what they were looking at. Many of his students helped him with major projects such as the new Alert Bay Big House, the U’mista Cultural Centre, and the Wa’kas Pole in Stanley Park. Cranmer’s advice extended beyond carving techniques, serving as a metaphor for his attitude towards life. He wanted his students to love doing their art and encouraged taking breaks when it became a source of stress or panic, reminding them ‘it’s just wood.’ Doug Cranmer never lost his centre line and this inspired and remains alive in the work of his students.

Courtesy of U'mista Cultural Society and the Audrey and Harry Hawthorn Library and Archive, MOA A001990C, Photo by Vickie Jensen

‘If I could teach people to see what they are looking at, I would have the whole of Alert Bay carving like crazy’ -Doug Cranmer.

Bill McLennan photo

Here are a few to get us started:

Q: “I found the Global Coverage of the club very interesting! I have previously seen one very similar to it and it was made of yew wood also.  Why is the club so shiny in the photograph I found on the internet – was it varnished by a previous owner, or painted? I researched the club I previously saw many years ago and could not find one of any age, in the North American area that was similar, I did however find some similarity in Hawaii.  I believed the club was carved in Canada – Yew wood does not grow in Hawaii as far as I know – but carved by someone of Hawaii & local descent. Interested in what you think…”

A (Answer by Karen Duffek, MOA Curator of Contemporary Visual Art & Pacific Northwest): “Thanks for your interesting query! There are indeed many questions surrounding this club, and we will continue to research its provenance. We’re hoping we can do a scientific analysis of a microscopic sample of the wood at some time, although the wood does feel and look like yew, and has the right weight and density.

“MOA and other museums do have a number of similar, yew-wood, hand-and-sphere clubs, somewhat sturdier in design, and formerly used as halibut clubs — these are all much more recent than the Cook club, with the earliest dating to the late 1800s or so, and others from the first few decades of the 20th century. These objects are, from left to right, from MOA (Kwakwaka’wakw), MOA (Northwest Coast — tribe unknown), National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC (Alaska source), and Royal BC Museum (Kwakwaka’wakw):

“The Cook club has a gorgeous patina that appears to be completely natural; it’s not varnish-shiny in actuality, though there is some shininess. This is a feature of patinated yew-wood objects of some age and probably lots of handling.

“Our curator with expertise in the South Pacific does not feel there is anything closely similar there, though she did hear from a colleague that there are comparable items in the Marquesas. So I will be interested to see some photos of those. I think the motif likely does have a universal presence in different forms.”

If you have other questions or comments, please let us know! Thanks…

photo taken by Ariel Kwan

The MOA Shop has been brining in more prints and artwork related to the Kesu’ exhibit (which just opened on Friday!). Today, the MOA Shop is show casing the work of William Wasden Jr. His full name is William Hilamas Edward Wasden Jr. Wakanalagalis “The-River-Flows-Through-Him-Forever” and like Doug Cranmer, he is from Alert Bay. William, a member of the ‘Namgis,  is a Hereditary Chief on both his mother’s and father’s side and a descendent of the Cook, Wanukw, Hunt, Alfred, Harris and Inis families.

photo taken by Ariel Kwan

At the age of twelve, his mother enrolled him in one of Doug Cranmer’s art classes where he would later learn and study under his cousin Beau Dick and Haida artist Don Yeoman. Along with visual artwork, William has a passion for singing and for preserving the songs of his people. He has been groomed by the late Chief Tom Willie and wife Elise to be a song keeper and composer for Kwawaka’wakw ceremony and everyday enjoyment. William  leads the ‘Gwa’wina Dancers Cultural Society’, a professional dance troupe that often represents the ‘Namgis Nation. The group keeps and practises authentic Kwakwa?ka?’wakw culture and teachings in a respectful and dignified way for people all over British Columbia.

While his music is not available at the gift shop at this time, please come by and see his prints (displayed here)!

photo taken by Ariel Kwan

Here is a video documenting William’s life and career. It also gives some excellent insight to Alert Bay and the traditions and artists that it creates. http://www.bebo.com/c/video?FlashBoxId=4224284635

Doug and Bill Reid carving Wasco (Haida sea wolf) at Totem Park, ubc, as part of the Haida House Project, 1961. moa 2784/3 (printed in 2009); photo by Takao Tanabe.[1]

 In 1958, Doug Cranmer received a phone call from Bill Reid inviting him to help on a carving project that had been commissioned by the Museum of Anthropology (MOA).  Until earlier that summer, Doug had spent most of his life fishing and working in the lumber industry, occasionally studying carving with his step- grandfather, Mungo Martin.  However, that summer the Department of Fisheries and Oceans had imposed its first ten day ban on fishing and in response Doug claimed that he would never fish again.[2]  That year would also be his last logging.  He moved to Vancouver to work with Bill Reid and, as Doug later stated, “That was the beginning of my carving career.”[3]

In the nearly three years the two men worked together, they experimented with various carving techniques and ways of copying images from other, older Haida poles.  In truth, the two men were at the time, quite inexperienced in carving.  It has since been rumoured that Reid taught Doug how to use the carving tools, such as the adze and chainsaw, and how to carve in general.  However, Reid had this to say: “Nobody, I’m sure, including me, could have influenced Doug one iota in any direction…if he learned anything in that period it was just improving his technique.  He retained his own style, which he still does.”[4]  Doug worked on the project with Reid until 1961, when he accidentally adzed his Achilles tendon and had to spend five weeks in the hospital.  However, the two would work together again in 1962 and 1963 restoring the Wa’kas, Nhe-is-bik and Sis-kaulas poles in Stanley Park.[5]

After his time working with Bill Reid, Doug began carving full-time, and opened one of the first Native-run art galleries in Canada. His work gained international respect and he experimented with a variety of styles and influences – Kwakwaka’wakw and Haida being only two of many.  Doug’s work was very much his own, and it is being brought together in the first ever solo exhibit of his work in MOA’s Kesu’.

Though Bill Reid’s influence on the work of Doug Cranmer is questionable, Doug, when asked if he had ever worked with Bill Reid would respond, in fun, with, “Yes, I taught him everything he knew.”

On March 16th, MOA will open the greatly anticipated exhibit on Doug Cranmer, Kesu’: The Art and Life of Doug Cranmer. Cranmer was a prolific artist who “whittled” and “doodled” in carving and painting in the Northwest Coast  Kwakwaka’wakw style. Dr. Jennifer Kramer, the curator of the exhibit, has already released her book on Doug Cranmer which can be found in the MOA shop, but the MOA shop plans to have prints and images of Cranmer’s work for you to take home with you.

Right now, as of March 16th, the following two prints will be available:

Photo courtesy of Royal British Columbia Museum. RBCM 16635. Canoe by Doug Cranmer

Canoe originates from Doug’s series of abstract paintings and was selected to become this limited edition print. “Although Doug completed many of his paintings in one or two days, Canoe was the product of a lengthier and more meticulous process” (Kramer, Jennifer. The Art and Life of Doug Cranmer. University of Washington Press: 2012. p. 90).  The print incorporates multiple views of the same canoe- including that of the log from which it was carved.  Fah Ambers, who observed Doug paint Canoe said that “he had that thing right down to scale where you could take that print, if you had the guts to, and cut it up and actually make a canoe out if it”.

Photo courtesy of Royal British Columbia Museum. RBCM 16325. Untitled Painting by Doug Cranmer, referred to as "Ravens in Nest".