Feast Dish Lid

Item number A2522 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Dzunuk'wa (or Tsonoqua) figure with pursed lips and heavy eyebrows. The feast dish lid is painted black with white outlining the eyebrows, brown around the red-rimmed eye holes, white bordering the eye sockets, red nostrils bordered around the top with white, brown bordered with white under the cheeks and down the sides of the jaw, red at the temples, and red on the lips.

History Of Use

Used as a feast dish lid. The carvings used were usually mythical beings associated with the history of the family who had the right to use representations of them as family crests. Dramatic displays of rank and privilege have traditionally been part of the oratory, dancing, regalia, and feasting that accompany the Kwakwaka’wakw potlatch. Immense feast dishes representing Dzunuk̓wa, or Wild Woman, were used at events where the host would challenge his rivals to promise future feasts. The placement of the dish, and the manner in which chiefs were served from its various parts, would reflect the rank of each tribe and sometimes fuel rivalries among them.

Cultural Context

ceremony; status

Iconographic Meaning

Dzunuk'wa (Tsonoqua) is usually recognized by her blackened face, sunken eyes and cheeks, and pursed lips. Dzunuk'wa was a female giantess who inhabited the distant forest and mountains. She had a distinctive cry 'hu, hu' and was particularly threatening to children. She could also be benevolent in some aspects. Used as a crest she was associated with wealth and power.

Narrative

This Dzunuk'wa dish lid appears to be the one shown in a historical photo (taken c. 1926) of fourteen men at Kingcome Village posing with a large Dzunuk'wa dish and two other lids, one of which is MOA #A4342. If it is this lid, it is now missing its eyes and was repainted. Individuals in the photo have been identified by Adam Dick, Mike Willie, and William Wasden, Jr. The men were identified as: Bill Wilson, Sam Webber, Chief Iwakalas (Jim Humchitt or “Adatana”), Tommy King, Alec Willie, Mr. Williams, Head Chief Kodalagalis (Dick Webber), Harry Jack, Alfred Coon, William Webber, William Dawson, Jim King, Albert Dawson, and Shorty James. Wasden said that Chief Iwakalas was probably the owner of the dish, and therefore of the lid that fit it.