The paint is red, black, and green.

The paint is red.

The renowned Kwakwaka'wakw artist Mungo Martin identified this transformation mask as his own work. It was made for a chief named Lagius, probably around 1920. The style of carving and painting are recognizable as that of Mungo Martin or his stepfather and mentor Charley James. Although the mask is called Crane in the museum records, the gray color and the hunched attitude when folded are reminiscent of the great blue heron, a bird common to the Kwakwaka'wakw country and often miscalled crane in English. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

This forehead mask represents Kolus, a white down-covered thunderbird. It was carved by Willie Seaweed for his son, Joe, to use during the Great Dance of the Tlasula. Joe Seaweed received the privilege of performing this masked dance from his mother, Alice, who had it as part of her dowry.

Large wooden carving of the upper torso of a male angel, holding a bowl. Figure is round at its base (waist), dressed in a blue-grey robe, holding a black bowl with one hand. The other hand is raised, palm out, in benediction. A pair of wings (parts b,c) with the carved feather side painted grey and the other side white with grey painted feathering, attach to the back with pegs.

recketts blue under-painting

Beaded knife sheath (part a) with carved wooden knife inside (part b). The front sheath panel of beaded fabric with a scalloped edge (lined at the back with a burgundy fabric), decorated with yellow and blue crosses and diagonal lines, is sewn to a skin panel with fringe down one side. Coils made of strings of beads wrapped around strips of fabric are at top and bottom; the top is a handle of white and blue, the bottom a long tail in yellow and blue with a red wool fabric tassel.