Description

Model wooden stick carved and painted on one end with a human face and headdress. [CAK 19/05/2009]

Longer Description

Model wooden stick carved and painted on one end with a human face and headdress. The stick has been carved from a single piece of wood. It is straight and carved in the round. The stick tapers toward the handle end and is mostly unpainted. At one end, the stick has been shallowly carved with a human face. An open mouth, the bridge of a nose, and eyes are carved and painted red. Above the face, a ring has been carved around the stick, with perpendicular lines carved toward the terminus to form a headdress. The sections between the lines have been painted black. The terminus is slightly rounded. The reverse of the head has a number of small dents clustered together, which may be evidence of use at some time. It may be modelled on a shaman's tool, or a chief's tally system. [CAK 19/05/2009]

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 stick was viewed alongside musical instruments on Thursday Sept 10, 2009. There was general consensus among delegates that this stick, as part of the set including 1891.49.27 - .31, was not a drum stick. Delegates wondered if it was something that would have been used by a shaman. Diane Brown proposed that if it was a shaman's tool, each stick may have been used to cure a different illness. Diane also wondered if these were a chief's tally sticks. She recalled that chief's would use sticks to keep a tally of potlatches and the blankets they had given away. They would store bundles of ten sticks in the rafters of their house to signify the blankets they had given away. Christian White noted that there was very little wear on the sticks, suggestion they were models and not used. [CAK 07/04/2010]
The object is one of eleven model sticks collected by Harrison. It bears a resemblance in carving, though not in painting, to 1891.49.23. [CAK 19/05/2009]

Primary Documentation

Accession book entry: 'From Rev. Ch. Harrison, 80 Halton Rd, Canonbury Sq. N. Collection of Haida objects collected by him.... - [1 of] 11 [model] Drum sticks.£45. [Purchase price includes 1891.49.1-110]

Card Catalogue Entry - CANADA, QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS, HAIDA INDIANS Model drum stick. Coll. by Rev. Ch. Harrison: purch. from him March 1891.

Written on object - Models of 'drum' sticks used for beating time to medicine man's chant when curing the sick. Haida. C. Harrison coll. (MS. No. 19). Purchased 1891.

Related Documents File - Email correspondence from Kwiaahwah Jones describing the sticks in relation to supernatural beings and shamanic practices in the Haida Project Related Documents File. The Haida Project Related Documents File 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]