Hunclee-quilas

Item number A1535 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Wooden northern style canoe with a Haida design painted on the outside. The canoe is painted black with Northwest Coast stylized designs on the ends in red, white and black. Depicted on each side is a Killer whale with its head and dorsal fin on the prow and the body and tailfins on the stern. There is a red border around the upper edges. The ends sweep upwards. The prow is grooved to hold a harpoon or mast and has a vertical fin to cut through waves. The interior is also painted black and has three rectangular bench seats.

History Of Use

Canoes were used for fishing and hunting, trading, voyaging and war. Important canoes were carved or painted with family crest figures on the prow.

Narrative

The boat was made in Kitamaat, by members of the Kitamaat Athletic Club, and was presented to G.G.E. Raley (Captain Emsley) as a wedding present in 1941. The canoe was given the name Hunclee-quilas, or Han-Tli-Kwe-Lough, in honour of the Chief who first established Kitamaat Village. Raley donated the canoe to the Museum of Anthropology in 1948 to give it a permanent home in British Columbia. The original painting, of a crest motif with arrows, flanked by an eagle and a killer whale, was obscured in 1967 when the canoe was over-painted by Haida artist Bill Reid, in a Haida design—possibly for a special exhibition.

Item History

What

Name
Hunclee-quilas
Identification Number
A1535
Type of Item
canoe
Material
red cedar wood and paint
Manufacturing Technique
carved and painted
Overall
height 0.82 m, width 0.95 m, depth 5.45 m

Where

Holding Institution
MOA: University of British Columbia
Made in
Kitamaat, British Columbia, Canada

Who

Culture
Haisla
Creator
Bill Reid (Technician), Stanley Shaw (Technician), Phillip McKay (Technician), Sampson Ross (Technician), Nelson Grant (Technician), Joe Gray (Technician), Solomon McKay (Technician), Eli Grant (Technician), David Shaw (Maker) and Johnathon Morrison (Technician)
Previous Owner
G. G. E. Raley
Received from
G. G. E. Raley (Donor)

When

Creation Date
during 1934
Ownership Date
between 1941 and December 1948
Acquisition Date
during December 1948

Other

Condition
good
Accession Number
2002/0001
This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 2.5 Canada License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by emailing [email protected].

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