Basket Item Number: 2911/13 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Rectangular cedar basket with one central handle. The basket has a protruding rounded point midway along the top of each of the longer walls where a long rounded handle is attached at both sides. The outside is decorated with alternating horizontal lines of imbrication in dark red and brown-black.

Narrative

Lutia Bidin was the mother of the donor, Rina Honderich. The Bidins had immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s, and moved from Deroche, BC to Woodfibre, BC c. 1918. Rina remembered women from Squamish canoeing over to Woodfibre to trade with her mother. Her mother would trade things like knitted socks, clothing and mats that she had made, for baskets that the Squamish women had made. Each would make a pile and when both sides agreed the exchange would take place. The baskets were used during the daily life of the family.