TOTEMS TO TURQUOISE (AMNH, NEW YORK, NY, USA, 2004) NUU-CHAH-NULTH EXHIBIT (ROYAL BRITISH COLUMBIA MUSEUM, VICTORIA, BC, CANADA, 2004)

AMERICA'S FASCINATING INDIAN HERITAGE. MAXWELL, JAMES, EDITOR, 1978, Publisher: READER'S DIGEST

DOWN FROM THE SHIMMERING SKY (VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, VANCOUVER, CANADA, 1997)

This mask represents Bak’was , a malevolent ghostly spirit, the keeper of drowned souls. He can cause loss of reason and sanity and lures those seeking escape into the night woods with a faint firelight where they experience madness, loss of a sense of right and wrong and lose balance and harmony with the world. Victims may survive by finding minimal sustenance on the forest floor or in the intertidal region. As a spirit, although diminutive, he can stride four times the average man. He has a green, hairy body and a skeletal visage. Souls of those drawn into the forest by him or who eat food he offers are lost forever and become part of his ghostly retinue. A soul could possibly be saved by subduing it with menstrual blood. John Livingston (b. 1951) is an adopted Kwakwaka'wakw carver. He became closely involved with master carvers Henry Hunt and Tony Hunt in the 1970s who gave him permission to carve masks and poles. This particular mask is his version of a wild man mask with deeply attenuated carving outlining the mouth and eyes. Painted in traditional colors of black and red.

Massive, carved sculpture of a standing male warrior figure with a crocodilian head, probably a mask. The figure carries a severed human trophy head cupped in his left hand and pressed against his body. The figure has pronounced breasts and male organs. His right arm is broken and missing but appears to have been flexed upward, probably holding an axe similar to other sculptures of this genre. The carved and incised crocodilian head has a broad, flat snout with visible fangs and teeth. The eyes are oval in shape and the snout is decorated with incised scrollwork. The figure wears ear spools, a hat, and bandolier decorated with incised geometrical designs. Condition: right arm and part of the hat are broken and missing.