Frontlet Headdress Item Number: 2922/3 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Description
Headdress and carved wooden frontlet with an extensive ermine trailer. The frontlet’s main figure is an eagle with a small bear head and paws below and a wolf(?) head and paws above. The eagle has shell eyes and many abalone decorative inlays around it. Sea lion whiskers project upward from the top of the headdress. The entire upper head area is covered with eaglet skin with the fine down still attached. A long ermine trailer sewn on red cotton hangs below the headpiece. There is an abalone eagle crest attached on the left side.
History Of Use
Chief's headdress. Among the Kwakwa̠ka̠’wakw, a frontlet or forehead mask like this is known as a pak̠iwe’. Its name changes to ya̠x̠wiwe’ (“dancing on the forehead”) when it is part of the full headdress — including a cylindrical crown with sea-lion whiskers at the top and an ermine-skin trailer — that is featured in the T’ła’sa̠la or Peace Dances (also known as the Dluwa̠lax̠a or Returned-from-Heaven Dances).
Item History
- Made in British Columbia, Canada
- Owned by Mabel Stanley before 1979
- Owned by Mabel Stanley Regalia Family Collective before November 9, 2011
- Received from Mabel Stanley Regalia Family Collective (Donor) on November 29, 2011
What
- Name
- Frontlet Headdress
- Identification Number
- 2922/3
- Type of Item
- headdress
- Material
- ermine skin, wood, eagle skin, cotton fibre, abalone shell, shell, sea lion whisker, wool fibre and paint
- Overall
- height 82.0 cm, width 48.0 cm, depth 65.0 cm
Who
- Culture
- Kwakwaka'wakw
- Previous Owner
- Mabel Stanley and Mabel Stanley Regalia Family Collective
- Received from
- Mabel Stanley Regalia Family Collective (Donor)
Where
- Holding Institution
- MOA: University of British Columbia
- Made in
- British Columbia, Canada
When
- Ownership Date
- before 1979 and before November 9, 2011
- Acquisition Date
- on November 29, 2011
Other
- Condition
- good
- Accession Number
- 2922/0003