Dzoonokwa, one of the best known mythical personages in Kwakwaka'wakw art, is usually represented as a female. She is a giantess of great strength and awesome appearance. Her characteristic features are large size, dark hairy body, hanging breasts, and a great head with heavy brow, arched nose, sunken cheeks and eyesockets, and lips pushed foward and rounded to produce her fearsome cry, "Oooooh!" (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

Sidney Gerber purchased this owl mask from Willie Seaweed shortly after it had been photographed, worn by Joe Seaweed, in the film Dances of the Kwakiutl (Orbit Films 1951). As seen on the museum wall the round bulging eyes set in flaring blue-green sockets and the fierce hooked beak dramatically express the character of the nocturnal bird of prey. When it is worn in the dance, the bird gains life. The mask is bold in its conception and execution. Made perhaps fifty years ago by George Walkus of Smith Inlet, it represents the artist's style at its most expressive. The painting in black, red, green, and white follows the carved features and elaborates the cheeks in typical Kwakiutl fashion. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)