Potlatch Regalia

After visiting Sointula on Malcolm Island, we continued southeast to Alert Bay on Cormorant Island, a short one-hour jaunt.  We attempted to set the anchor but it skipped along the bottom.  There appeared to be a lot of sea grass on the ocean bottom so it took us three try’s to finally get the anchor set.  We found a good spot just off the old pier next to the Native Cultural Centre and added a stern anchor to keep the boat perpendicular to shore and into the wind. 

U'mista Cultural Centre

Alert Bay is home to the U’mista Cultural Centre, housing a superb collection of Potlatch regalia of the Kwakwaka’wakw people.   The word potlatch means “to give” and the event brings together neighboring families and nearby tribes.  Potlatches may celebrate marriage, birth, death or other rites of passage.   

Native families playing on the Beach

Totems at Cultural Centre

Potlatches are a vehicle for giving and the more a family shares, the better the event is remembered.  In 1885 the government of Canada banned potlatches, but Natives continued their tradition in secrecy.  In the early 1920’s a new Director of Indian Affairs gave orders to enforce the potlatch laws.  First Nation members were arrested and some spent time in jail.  Potlatch regalia was confiscated and shipped to museums in Ottawa and Toronto, other pieces were sent to the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs and still others to a private collector in New York.  

Artifacts at  Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

The ceremonial regalia included coppers, masks, headdresses, and aprons, belts, arm pieces, cedar boxes etc.  The first real efforts to repatriate these objects were started in the late 1960’s.  The Board of Trustees of the National Museums agreed to return the items with the condition that museums be constructed on Native land to house the artifacts. 

Artifacts at Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

Artifacts at Cultural Centre, Alert Bay

In 1979, the Kwakiutl Museum at Cape Mudge was completed, followed by the opening of the U’mista Cultural Centre on November 1, 1980.  The word “u’mista” comes from the concept of freedom; when a person returns from enslavement, they are said to have “u’mista” and the same can be said of the potlatch regalia.  We also visited the old burial grounds of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) on the other end of town, where magnificent totems stand proud  overlooking the harbour.  

Kwakiutl Cemetery

Alert Bay Community

The cemetery is near the main area of town where a promenade fronts shops and eateries along the bay.  In 1870 the Namgis moved their main village across Broughton Strait to Alert Bay on Cormorant Island (named for the British naval survey ships Alert and Cormorant) where some white settlers had established a store and saltery.  

Community Church Established 1879

Town Center, Alert Bay

A sawmill was soon built, as well as a hospital, residential school, and salmon cannery.  Natives from other villages also moved to Alert Bay and it became a major port for the commercial fishery.  The village at Alert Bay is still a cultural and commercial centre of the Kwakwaka’wakw people.