Hat Item Number: 3261/117 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Finely woven of spruce roots, this small child’s hat is painted with a split image of a whale encircling the crown and brim, its eyes facing the front, fins at the side, tail flukes at the back. Hat has a slightly concave top, with a red painted circle on it, and a wide brim. Woven with various twined weaves; the rim is braided; the inner headband is twill weave.

Iconographic Meaning

Said to have a 'slug’s trail pattern'. The weaver’s idenfication may be encoded in the red circle on the top — often the place where the male painter would apply the weaver's “signature.” To wear such a hat would have indicated the child’s ties to family and clan, and therefore their connection to both human and supernatural ancestors. The weaver would have learned this art from her own female relatives — not only the complex technique of weaving its flared, conical form, but also the process that preceded it.