More Potlatch Treasures




Cape Mudge Village, Quadra Island

 

After our stay at Gorge Harbour on Cortes Island, we crossed the Strait of Georgia in calm seas.  We rounded Cape Mudge on the south tip of Quadra Island, motoring through the usual maze of fishing boats off the Cape, and headed for Campbell River on Vancouver Island.  

Ferry Landing at Quathiaski Cove, Quadra Island

The following day we took our bicycles on the small car ferry that runs between Campbell River and Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island.  Once on the Island, we rode southward to the Native village of Cape Mudge, home of the We Wai Kai Nation to visit the Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre & Museum.  The museum first opened in 1979 as the Kwagiulth Museum then closed in 2001 for renovations, reopening in May 2007 as the Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre.  

Quathiaski Cove, Quadra Island

Canoe at Cape Mudge Village

The Nuyumbalees Society was founded in 1975 to complete the negotiations for the return of their Potlatch ceremonial items and regalia, which the Government of Canada had confiscated in 1921 during the time of the Anti-Potlatch Law.  Like the museum in Alert Bay on Cormorant Island, the museum at Cape Mudge houses and preserves repatriated potlatch artifacts.  

Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre & Museum

The purpose of a potlatch was to acknowledge a marriage, mourn a death, or transfer rights or crests etc. through the acceptance of gifts celebrated through song, dance, and storytelling.  The potlatch host provided entertainment and gave his guests gifts according to their recognized position in society and were fed a large feast.  The excellent museum at the Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre in Cape Mudge provides close up views of exquisitely carved masks and head dresses as well as other pieces like rattles, whistles, and cedar bark ceremonial clothing. 

Whistle (photo from internet)

Whistles represented a variety of animal sounds each with a different tone constructed of two pieces of wood lashed together.  Before lashing the pieces together, the inside was shaped for each unique sound. 

Rattle (photo from internet)

Rattles were used to announce the beginning of a chant or song and masks represented different animals or beings.  The museum also had a nice collection of historic photos of various Native villages and provided explanations about the series of dances, their purpose, and how the regalia was used in each ceremony.  As in all cultures, there seems to be a common thread in mankind’s imagination.  Native American and First Nations story telling seem to be a combination of operas, fairy tales, and religious beliefs.  For example, the Bakas is said to be half man, half animal with a hair covered body and lives in the forest.  Another dance (with canoe costume pieces) tells of the first ancestor Weqe, who was told by the Great Spirit to put himself and his family into four canoes before the great flood came.  Weqe and his family survived the deluge but the two canoes at the end broke away.  One drifted northward, one drifted southward, becoming the ancestors of different bands.  The museum at Cape Mudge also had a nice collection of coppers, like those at Alert Bay. 

Coppers at U'mista Centre, Alert Bay

Coppers were used as an economic tool, similar in function to the way bonds are used today.  When an investor bought a copper he would buy it with mountain goat fur, the mode of currency on the coast prior to European contact.  If he liquidated his assets a year later by reselling his copper, he would receive the same amount of goat furs for his copper plus profit from the sale.  The Nuyumbalees Cultural Centre is definitely worth a visit, unfortunately, not many people seem to know about this museum due to the lack of promotional efforts and lack of photos since photography is not allowed inside the museum.