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Description

Red and black salmon carved from wood and used in dances. [CAK 09/04/2010]

Longer Description

Red and black salmon carved from wood and used in dances. Carved in two identical parts [.1 and .2] which fit together to form a three-dimensional fish. The exterior of both fish is painted iridescent black with five white spots and red eyes. The interior flat sides of both halves are painted in a black and red zoomorphic representative design. The jaws of both halves are constructed of moveable parts. The jaw is attached to the body by means of a thin strip of leather. [NM 14 1 1997]

Primary Documentation

Accession book entry: 'From Rev. Ch. Harrison, 80 Halton Rd, Canonbury Sq. N. Collection of Haida objects collected by him.... - Wooden Salmon charm. £45 [Purchases price includes 1891.49.1-110] [JC 4 9 1996]

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

Detailed Amulet Card Catalogue - Amulets A Signatures B Sym(pathetic) Magic C Div(ination) and Witchcraft - B. Sympathetic Magic - B.1 Hunting & Fishing - 3 Fish Figures - Description: Wooden figure of a salmon, made in two halves, painted inside and out, the lower jaw hinged on leather & fastened with string & toggle so as to move up and down. Used in dances when salmon are scarce, to make them come up the river. The figure was carried by the medicine man down to the P.T.O. [continues on reverse of card] beach, there they would sing, dance & evoke the chief of the waters to assist in bringing salmon to the rivers. NC GTD 2A. Dim. 445 x 120 mm. People: Haida. Locality: Qun. Charlotte Island. Collected By: the Revd. C. Harrison. How Acquired: C. Harrison Coll. m.s. no. 16 purchased 1891. References: Letters from Harrison. [EB 25/2/2002]

Pitt Rivers Display label - Sympathetic magic- carving representing a salmon, used in ceremonial dances, when salmon are scarce in the rivers. Haida, Queen Charlotte Id. [MJD 17/08/2009]

Written on object - Salmon charm used in dances when salmon are scarce. C. Harrison coll. (MS No. 16) Purchased 1891. [NM 12 11 1996]

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]

Publications History

Discussed by Charles Harrison on p. 86 of his Ancient Warriors of the North Pacific (London: H.F. and G. Witherby, 1925): ‘To another class of ceremonial belongs the salmon dance which took place when these fish were scarce. A chief would be selected for the leading part and he would wear a mask with two red spots on the forehead, three black marks on the left cheek and black and red dots on the right. In his hand he carried a carved representation of a salmon. Accompanied by the Shaman he would proceed to the beach followed by the people; he would then dance and sing and the Shaman would invoke the water spirits and beg them to bring back the salmon.' [NM 25 2 1997]
Reproduced in black and white as figure 8 on page 6 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. Caption reads: 'Salmon ceremonial carvings, split in two: views of inside and outside'. Bedford notes that the mask referred to by Harrison (see above) 'is not preserved at the Pitt Rivers Museum', but there is nothing to indicate that it was ever in the Museum's collection. [JC 16 4 1999]
Illustrated [.2] in colour on page 6 of Particularly Ravishing Morsels: Recipes from Around the World Inspired by the Collections, by The Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum (no place [Oxford], no publisher [Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum], no date [2007]). It is used to illustrate a recipe for 'Gravadlax' by Rosemary Lee and is captioned 'Carved salmon charm, used in dances when salmon are scarce. Haida, Queen Charlotte Islands, Canada. 1891.49.35.' [El.B 29/04/2008]
Illustrated [.1] in colour on page 2 of Particularly Ravishing Morsels: Recipes from Around the World Inspired by the Collections, by The Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum (no place [Oxford], no publisher [Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum], no date [2007]). It is used to illustrate the contents page. [El.B 29/04/2008]

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”:
These carvings were viewed alongside shamanic objects on Friday Sept 11, 2009. Diane Brown, Nika Collison and Natalie Fournier were clear that these were not shamanic objects, but rather were used when dancing. They also disagreed with the description of these fish as 'amulets'. They called them dance accessories. Nika Collison sang the song that they would have been danced to. Lucille Bell observed that the moveable jaws make these fish 'clappers', i.e. their jaws would open and shut when being danced and produce a percussive sound. Lucille thought they would have been used on a stick because of the recess that is created when the two halves are joined together. She also thought they would have been held together with string. Christian White said he had not seen objects such as these before. He thought the painting looked Haida and wondered if they had to do with the return of the salmon ceremony, a celebration of the first salmon caught after their scarcity through the winter months. [CAK 09/04/2010]

This object was viewed and confirmed as Haida by tribal members Vincent Collison, Lucille Bell, and Kwiiawah Jones on 7 September 2007 in preparation for a planned Haida community visit to PRM in 2009 [L Peers, 24/01/2008]

Item History

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