ID Number

Title

Item Name

Culture

Date Made

Maker

Place Made

Date Owned

Owner

Acquisition Date

Source

Source

Source

Measurements

Item Classes

Condition

Current Location

Accession Number

Description

A drawing on a tan coloured bookmark. The front-side of the bookmark is a horizontally oriented image of a whale drawn in black ink. The whale has a bird-like head with a large curved beak, a thin tongue and a thin, flat lower jaw. The whale's blowhole is decorated with an inverted face; air exits the blowhole and trails the length of the whale's body. The pectoral fin is wide and is mostly coloured in with black ink; the fin is embellished with a creature with an eye-shape(?) and teeth. The dorsal fin is decorated with an ovoid positioned between two tower-shapes. A small circle enclosed by a larger circle, is positioned on the underbelly of the whale between the pectoral fin and the tail. The base of the tail is decorated with a creature with an eye-shape(?) and teeth; each tail fluke is embellished with a thin tower-shape. The reverse-side of the bookmark is machine-printed in brown ink. Printed on the far left is a crest with an owl perched on an open book. The remainder of the bookmark lists commercial information including the bookstore's name, "Gallowglass Books Ltd."

History Of Use

These 62 small works (3223/1-62) comprise a collection of drawings in pencil, ink, pencil crayon, and felt pen made by the artist between the years 1968 and 2015. During that period the artist has identified himself by the following names: Ron Hamilton; Hupquatchew; Ki-ke-in; Kwayatsapalth; Chuuchkamalthnii; and Haa’yuups. The drawings are, for the most part, applied to the backs of bookmarks acquired from a range of bookshops; some are applied to other pieces of paper or cutouts from his earlier silkscreen prints. Many of the images represent killer whales, often in conjunction with accoutrements and symbols of Nuu-chah-nulth whaling. The juxtaposition of bookmark and representation of Nuu-chah-nulth himwits’a, or narrative, is a deliberate and meaningful placement of two distinct knowledge systems in relationship with one another. Ephemeral drawings like these were not created for the market; the artist has long made them for himself and sometimes as gifts for relatives and friends; they are a way of sharing his knowledge and experience about Nuu-chah-nulth ways of knowing, thinking about, and being in this world; they are expressive of what he calls kiitskiitsa: marks made with intention.