Speaker's Staff Item Number: A8140 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Carved, wooden speaker's staff, or talking stick, with six figures in colours of black, red, green and brown. Abalone shell pieces are inlaid on all of the figures. Top figure is a supernatural eagle, or Kolus, in human-like form, with a crooked beak and a labret. Below that is a human wearing a three-ringed hat. His body morphs into a whale, whose mouth touches the back fins of a sea lion. The bottom bear figure is mounted on top of a short, cylindrical base.

History Of Use

Speaker’s staff (yaḵ̓a̱nt̓p̓eḵ) is brought out at start of a potlatch – a visual reminder of the history of that family. They work their way down to the base figure, the most important figure. It’s said, the paternal ancestor who's holding up the rest of your ancestry. A family’s stick includes history of ownership or claims to special significant places, and some of talk about resources. Birthright and inheritance governed the whole system.

Iconographic Meaning

According to Mungo Martin (1962), Kolus is Thunderbird's little brother. It changed into human form, took the name Dzenkayu, and founded the clan (numaym) Dzendzenkayu. According to William Housty: "The top is a supernatural eagle or Kolos, who left a good smell wherever he flew, and is associated with the story of chief Wigvilhba-Wakas from Yalathi of the Uyalitxv tribe. The abalone that the Eagle-Man is holding comes from a story where Wigvilhba-Wakas, along with the son of Hmzit, created the first ornament made of abalone shells. The human with the 3-ringed hat below the eagle represents the cheifly authority over the ceremonies in the potlatch, and the whale below it also comes from the same story as the Eagle-Man and the creation of Yalathi (Goose Island), where the eagle killed the whale, and the whale turned to stone and created Goose Island, and the eagle attempted to transform back into a human but ended up with a human body and eagle face, and his name was Wigvilhba-Wakas. The sea lion below that represents the copper of Wigvilhba-Wakas. The bear is a well known crest of chief Humchitt.

Narrative

According to Peter Macnair's research (see Objects and Expressions, pg. 61), this talking stick was originally presented by Heiltsuk relatives to a Walas Kwagu'l chief, of the Lakwilayla tribe, Hemasak'a (also known as Wakyadzi), who is shown holding the stick in a photograph, in 1912. As his maternal great grandfather, he willed it to Willie Hunt at his birth. According to Mungo Martin (1962), the staff was passed on to a man named Billy McDuff, maternal uncle of Willie Hunt, who passed it on to Willie Hunt when he was older. Macnair believes Willie Hunt sold it to W. Helmer, who later sold it to E. Bevan-Cross, whose collection was purchased by the Museum in 1962. The staff is published in a Curtis photograph from 1912, held by the "...principal chief of the Qagyuhl" (See 'The North American Indian', Volume 10, The Kwakiutl, 1915. Portfolio plate no. 333.) Displayed at a Hunt family potlatch in 2006, and a Hunt family naming ceremony in 2019.

Item History

What

Name
Speaker's Staff
Identification Number
A8140
Type of Item
staff
Material
paint, red cedar wood, abalone shell and metal
Manufacturing Technique
carved, painted, nailed and inlaid
Overall
height 168.2 cm, width 8.6 cm, depth 8.8 cm

Who

Culture
Kwakwaka'wakw
Creator
Daniel Houstie (Maker)
Previous Owner
William Hunt, Hemasak'a and Edith Bevan Cross
Received from
Edith Bevan Cross (Seller) and H. R. MacMillan (Funding source)

Where

Holding Institution
MOA: University of British Columbia
Made in
British Columbia, Canada
Collected in
Fort Rupert, British Columbia, Canada and Tsaxis, British Columbia, Canada

When

Creation Date
during 1900
Ownership Date
before July 30, 1962
Acquisition Date
on July 30, 1962

Other

Condition
fair
Accession Number
0081/0005