Spirit of the Ancestors-The Tlookwana is the most important winter ceremonial of the Nuu-chah-nulth. Initiate dancers are taken away by wolves, taught by them, and later recaptured by their family. After their recapture, they perform the dances given to them during their training. This rattle depicts a dancer wearing a traditional wolf headdress of the type worn during the Tlookwana.

Spirit of the Ancestors-On the southern Northwest Coast, spiritual people get their power from animal spirit helpers and other supernatural beings. According to the artist, when the spirit power comes into them, their faces can change. Here the bear and human are combined, showing the intensity of the spirit power of the bear.

Spirit of the Ancestors-This mask represents people of my generation. - Hyacinth Joe David

Spirit of the Ancestors-Ulth-ma-koke is by far my very favorite character in our history. And I prefer the term history to mythology because all of these things in our culture spring from the real, actual beings and actual experiences. This represents a person of my father and uncle's generation. - Hyacinth Joe David

The paint is turquoise, black, red, and white.

Spirit of the Ancestors-This design was first drawn on a place mat in the late 1970s and eventually painted onto a skin drum. An innovative photo-serigraph technique was used to recreate the qualities of the drum's surface on the paper.