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Description

Shaman's dance apron made of wool textile and decorated with puffin beaks and quillwork and/or woven plant material. [CAK 06/04/2010]

Publications History

Referred to on page 8 of 'Haida Art in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and the Rev. Charles Harrison', by June Bedford, in European Review of Native American Studies, Vol. XII, no. 2 (1998), pp. 1-10. Bedford notes 'there is also...[a] very old and decrepit blanket with badly destoyed rows of quillwork and hangings of puffin beaks. This is very like the garments worn in the photo showing the shaman Kute with another shaman and a chief.' Figure 17 reproduces an 1881 photograph by Edward Dossiter in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History, New York (no. 337179). [JC 16 4 1999]

Longer Description

Shaman's dance apron made of wool textile and decorated with puffin beaks and quillwork and/or woven plant material. It is suspected that the black wool used to make this dance apron was originally from the coat of a ship's captain as the apron is made up of a number of segments and patches, with seams visible on both sides and darting in unexpected places. Some of the stitching is done in a light brown coloured material. There are two rows of decoration on the bottom half of the apron. The first row occurs about half-way up the apron and consists of a series of eight thin bands of dyed and woven material, possibly quill, grass or bark. In the very centre of the apron, the number of rows increases to nine. The dyed sections on each of the thin bands act together to create a thicker band with geometric patterns in shades of brown. Below the woven section is sewn a strip of hide that has been cut into narrow strips to make a fringe. The upper mandibles of puffins are attached to the bottom of the fringe. This decoration does not reach the edge of the apron on one side, and extends beyond the edge of the apron on the other. The second row of decoration is near the bottom of the apron. It is similarly comprised of thin bands of woven material (quill, bark or grass), however there are only six rows and the dyes used are more red in tone. Below the woven decoration is another hide fringe with puffin mandibles. This bottom row of decoration also extends beyond the edge on one side of the apron, and although it reaches further toward the other edge, still does not span the entire width of the apron. [CAK 06/04/2010]

Primary Documentation

Accession book entry: 'From Rev. Ch. Harrison, 80 Halton Rd, Canonbury Sq. N. Collection of Haida objects collected by him.... - Apron of cloth with puffin beaks. £45. [Purchase price includes 1891.49.1-110]

No additional information on catalogue cards. [JC 4 9 1996]

Related Documents File - A discussion of the apron can be seen on Tape 7, time 17:06. The tape is part of the Haida Project Related Documents File which contains video of research sessions and interviews with Haida delegates from September 2009 as part of the project ‘Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge'. It also includes post-visit communications that discuss object provenance. For extensive photographic, video, and textual records documenting the Haida research visit as a whole, including but not limited to preparations of objects for handling, travel logistics, British Museum participation, transcribed notes from research sessions and associated public events held at PRM, see the Haida Project Digital Archive, stored with the Accessions Registers. Original hand-written notes taken during research sessions have been accessioned into the Manuscripts collection, in addition to select other materials. [CAK 02/06/2010]

Research Notes

The following information comes from Haida delegates who worked with the museum's collection in September 2009 as part of the project “Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge”:
This apron was viewed alongside other items of regalia and personal adornment on Friday Sept 11, 2009. This dance apron was identified as a very unique, early piece that would have been worn by a shaman or sgaaga. Candace Weir noted the large amount of patching that has gone into making and maintaining the apron and that this is a sign that the apron was highly prized and well-loved. She also thought a man had made the apron. Diane Brown observed that this was a dance apron that had been made from another garment, as indicated by a seam being inside out and a dart possibly indicating where an armhole had been. She suspected the original garment was a ship captain's coat. She identified the fringe on the bottom layer as moose hide and the top layer as deer hide. She also identified the decoration above the fringe as porcupine quill with cedar. Lucille Bell indicated that Haidas traded for quill work. Diane Brown similarly noted that quills would have been traded for and thought both the quills and moose hide could have come from Montana because of a story she learned that told of two Haida brothers who went to Montana, one of whom stayed, and one of whom returned to Haida Gwaii. She thought the puffin beaks and cedar decorations would have been added on Haida Gwaii and that the puffin beaks were sewn onto the fabric with root or a plant fibre. Gaahlaay (Lonnie Young) thought that some of what is identified as quill may actually be a grass; there is a 5-jointed grass that can be used for weaving and is not as stiff as quill. Ruth Gladstone Davies did not think the quill would be porcupine because porcupine is too stiff. Christian White, however, agreed with Diane that porcupine was a possibility. Lucille Bell also wondered if one of the materials used in the decoration was cherry bark. Delegates observed that some of the materials in the decoration appear to be dyed.
Christian White recalled a photography of the shaman Kudee (or Kootay, or Kude) wearing a similar apron in the book Haida Art by George MacDonald (published in 1996 by the Canadian Museum of Civilization). [Cara Krmpotich note: the image appears on page 189 and features four men, three of whom are wearing wool aprons with puffin beaks and woven decorations, and the fourth wearing a chilkat apron with puffin beak fringe.]
Discussion of this apron appears on Tape 7, time 17:06, which can be found in the Haida Project Related Documents File. [CAK 06/04/2010]

Several pieces of black woollen cloth have been stitched together to make this apron, which is decorated near its lower edge with two horizontal bands of red, brown and white quillwork on skin, below which hang skin fringes with puffin beaks. [LMM, undated]

Item History

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