ID Number

Title

Item Name

Culture

Material

Manufacturing Technique

Date Made

Place Made

Date Collected

Date Owned

Date Owned

Owner

Owner

Acquisition Date

Source

Source

Measurements

Condition

Accession Number

Description

Headdress of a raven with mirrored glass eyes. Painted black, blue, and red. Head attached to wooden head ring covered with shredded red cedar bark and repurposed blue with white stripes cotton cloth. Moveable lower jaw held together by metal pegs.

History Of Use

This headpiece most likely wouldn't have been danced. It would have been worn ceremonially by a Sisawk member to show that he belongs to that society. The goal of the Sisawk society is to make sure the people know their ancestry, where they come from, and the lineage they hold. After they are worn in ceremony, Sisawk pieces are put away in treasure boxes. Sometimes, these boxes were hidden in the house or in the sacred rooms. Sometimes they were hidden in caves that only the Stataltmc, the hereditary chiefs, knew about.

Narrative

In 1959 John Davenport Clayton sold this collection of Bella Coola belongings (A8360-A8376) to the Campbell River Historical Society (Museum). The collection comprised 17 masks, headdresses, and other ceremonial items, as well as 3 cedar boxes. In 1963 the Campbell River Museum sold the 17 masks and ceremonial items to MOA (not the boxes). Objects in this collection may have come from Nuxalk households via sale, or exchange (as collateral towards money owed on goods purchased at the store), or may have been placed with the Claytons for secure storage during a time of floods and fires, and ended up remaining with the Clayton family?