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 an off-white bookmark. The front-side is a horizontally oriented, hand-drawn image of a killer whale in black ink. The whale's head is comprised of an exaggerated eye-shape, and a lower jaw decorated with two stars and one smaller creature with an eye and teeth. Air exits from a blowhole at the back of the whale's head. The body of the whale is decorated with stripe patterns, four stars, and three creatures. The whale's tail is decorated with three small creatures and one star in the bottom tail fluke. A creature with an eye and square teeth is drawn between the two tail flukes. The reverse-side of the bookmark is machine-printed in brown ink. On the left half is an image of a house surrounded by trees with the text "The Baker House" printed below. The right half of the bookmark lists commercial information including the bookstore's name, "Poor Richards 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.