The paint is black, red, green, and white. The wool is blue.

This ladle is one of a pair of ladles in the collection of the Burke Museum. Ladles with figures of mythical creatures carved on their handles, such as this one, are used to distribute food from feast dishes. The Sisioohl head is conceived as an extension of the handle, bent back upon itself and joined to the neck of the spoon. Attached to the nose and curling up over it like a tongue, is a small copper. (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)

The paint is black and white.

The paint is black.

Decorated cradles like this one were used only by nobility, and the designs were probably valued family crests. This design represents a whale on the long sides and a copper on the back of the headboard. The whole surface is carved in low relief and painted in black, orange, yellow, red, white, and green on a blue ground. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

Worn by participants in the Tseyka, these neck ring ornaments in the Burke Museum collection consist of a set of three carved and painted wooden plaques, representing the tail and flippers of a whale. There may have been a fourth piece representing the whale's head in the set. They were probably sewn to a rope-like ring of dyed cedar bark, perhaps 18 cm in diameter, which could be conceived of as the body of the whale. The bifurcate tail with a humanoid face for the joint hangs down the back of the wearer, while the two similarly decorated flippers stand out to the sides of the chest. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

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.

Northern wooden spoons are typically carved from a section of a small tree, using almost the entire cylinder of the wood. The shallow S-profile of the spoon runs through the block in such a way that the center of the tree is visible at two places in the spoon, once in the bowl near the tip and again at the base of the handle. This means that the wood grain at the tip and in the handle lies at an angle to the spoon's surface; when it is carved very thin, as here, the spoon is quite fragile. This spooon is one of three in the collection of the Burke Museum. Lieutenant George Emmons, who collected this spoon, identified the creature on it as a petrel. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

This dish exemplifies the extravagance of Kwakwaka'wakw ceremonial utensils. A typical feast dish, it is conceived of as a large sculptured animal, in this case a wolf, hollowed to receive the food it is to serve. Dishes of this sort belonged to the owner of a house and were accounted for in the origin myths of the family. They were highly valued and used only on occasions of great feasts. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)