Figure

Item number A7235 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

Public

Item Records

This page shows all the information we have about this item. Both the institution that physically holds this item, and RRN members have contributed the knowledge on this page. You’re looking at the item record provided by the holding institution. If you scroll further down the page, you’ll see the information from RRN members, and can share your own knowledge too.

The RRN processes the information it receives from each institution to make it more readable and easier to search. If you’re doing in-depth research on this item, be sure to take a look at the Data Source tab to see the information exactly as it was provided by the institution.

These records are easy to share because each has a unique web address. You can copy and paste the location from your browser’s address bar into an email, word document, or chat message to share this item with others.

Data
Data Source

This information was automatically generated from data provided by MOA: University of British Columbia. It has been standardized to aid in finding and grouping information within the RRN. Accuracy and meaning should be verified from the Data Source tab.

Description

Stone carving of a woman sitting on the back of a large fish, in front of the dorsal fin. Carved from mottled white-grey stone.

Iconographic Meaning

Sculpture depiction of a nude woman riding on the back of a killer whale. This may allude to one of several different clan-owned stories from the Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Haida oral histories. The stories share a theme of a woman being kidnapped by the Killer Whale Chief and later rescued by her husband.

Narrative

The killer whale sculpture appears to be the work of Tsimshian artist Samuel Elwitt. Another possibility is that this work was carved by Elwitt in wood, and then copied by marble-working grave sculptors in Victoria, as was sometimes done for grave markers of high-ranking individuals. The four fins depicted on the bottom sides of the whale are consistent with Elwitt’s carving style and appear on all of his known depictions of killer whales, something that appears to be unique to his work. The piece was recorded by the donor as having been collected at Skeena Crossing, but earlier provenance is unknown.