The splint is cedar?. The pigment is red.

The paint is black and red.

According to archeological record, the Queen Charlotte Islands were populated at least seven thousand years ago. Haida traditions claim the origin of humankind in the islands, but they also tell of the subsequent arrival of the ancestors of certain lineages by sea. In either case, the ancient Haida were of necessity expert canoeists, and generations of hard and practical experience made them unsurpassed designers, makers, and users of canoes. This canoe model was made by the renowned Haida artist Charles Edenshaw. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

The custom among northern noble women of wearing a labret in the pierced lower lip excited the curiosity and disgust of early Euro-American visitors to the coast. In the long run, under the influence of Western civilization, the use of the labret died out, but examples of the ornament remain. This labret in the Burke Museum collection is of carved wood, bearing the figure of a whale in low relief on one face and abstract design elements on the other. A shallow groove runs around the sides to secure the labret in place in the lip. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)