Mask Item Number: A8242 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Circular mask with hooked nose, mouth and hidden eyes. Cedar bark fringe around head. Cloth hangs from back with fibre cording. Colours are red, yellow, green, white and black. Nose has holes in the wood.
Used in the Bumblebee dance, which is a children's dance and is often one of the first dances a child participates in during the Winter Ceremonial among the Musgamagw Dzawada'enuxw.
Used in potlatch by Alec Nelson, Kingcome Inlet, 1938 (Dick Hawkins, 1966).
Represents a bumblebee. In the dance, a father and mother bee lead progressively smaller bees out onto the dance floor one by one. When the children are led back into their 'beehive' at the end of the dance one child is discovered to be missing. The father bee circles the floor four times searching for this lost child. On the fourth round the child is found hidden amongst the spectators and is led home.