Figure

Item number Nb9.54 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Black bird-like supernatural being (Thunder) with bulbous forehead with non-recurving beak on top of base. Raven and whale in low relief on base. Red scallop and flower design on flat back. Red and black watercolour on unfinished wood. (Very similar to Nb9.53, but has four red scallops on the front of each wing).

History Of Use

Used as a book end, with Nb9.53.

Specific Techniques

The black paint was made out of pulverized black stone mixed with salmon egg, and the burgundy/red pigment was made with pulverized red rocks, salmon eggs, and sometimes mixed with red dye made from alder that the artist's wife used to dye cedar bark. Paint is not watercolor, but native pigments made from minerals and tannins.

Iconographic Meaning

The Nuxalk "Thunder" being is not a bird, but rather a type of supernatural being. (Nuxalk people are adamant that Thunder beings are not the same as "Thunderbirds”, an important distinction in differentiating Nuxalk beliefs from their neighbours.) Painted scalloping and sawtooth designs are diagnostic of Dick Snow’s artwork, and the design on the back represents the wooden slats that would have attached to the Thunder regalia, for movement while dancing. The long-beaked birds on the base are Hao Hao creatures (Hok Hok in Wakashan).

Narrative

Dick Snow’s grandson, Chief Jeffrey Snow (7ANISPUXALS), remembers that his grandfather carved these miniatures for sale, rather than something like masks, to prevent non-Native people from disrespecting the Smayusta (family-owned ancient origin stories) of the objects. Jeffrey Snow, along with Marshall Hans (Komokwa, also Dick Snow’s grandson), remember Dick Snow making his own pigment paints out of mineral rocks that he gathered himself from around the Bella Coola Valley. Dick Snow sold his carvings right from his house in Bella Coola, filling a curio cabinet in his living room with work and turning it to face out from the window. Customers would come and look in at his offerings, buying the work directly from him.