Kwakwaka'waks (Ligwilda'xw) Whale Headdress

Kwakwaka'waks (Ligwilda'xw) Whale Headdress

First Nation.
Indigenous peoples.
British Columbia.
Kwakwaka'waks.
Museum scramble.

The Kwakwaka'wak Whale Headdress is an argillite carving created by the Kwakwaka'wak, a Pacific Northwest Coast Indigenous people north of the city of Vancouver, collected by Charles F. Newcombe’s from his early 20th-century exploration in British Columbia. Whilst the original dorsal fin is missing, the whale’s jaw, fins and tail are still moveable. It is coated in black, red, and blue and has a face carved into the tail. It can be inferred as an argillite carving produced for the tourist market or more likely used as a religious object for local ceremonies by the Kwakwaka'wak tribe. The object gives an insight into the theme of museum age scramble because the item was collected in 1911 by Newcombe, a British ethnographer. The object was subsequently used for the Royal BC Museum for display.

Kwakwaka'wak - collected by Charles F. Newcombe

Royal BC Museum

https://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/collections/human-history/ethnology-objects

Creation date unknown
Item collected in 1911

Sebastian Cook

Royal BC Museum (Item number: RBCM 1868)

N/A

Material object - Argillite carving

20th Century British Columbia