Skaay of the Qquuna Qiighawaay was born in the Haida village of Qquuna about 1827. Crippled by an injury in middle age, he devoted himself to the art of telling stories. He could neither read nor write, and it is purely a matter of luck that his work survives. But so great were his talents that he remains the most important figure in all of Haida l …

This print-on-demand title is available by request from most booksellers.

The mysterious stone figures known as inuksuit can be found throughout the circumpolar world. Built from whatever stones are at hand, each one is unique. Inuksuit are among the oldest and most important objects placed by humans upon the vast Arctic landscape and have become a familiar symbol of the Inuit and their homeland.

In author Norman Hallendy …

In the Fall of 1900, a young American anthropologist named John Swanton arrived in the Haida country, on the Northwest Coast of North America, intending to learn everything he could about Haida mythology. He spent the next ten months phonetically transcribing several thousand pages of myths, stories, histories and songs in the Haida language. Swant …

Art BC presents -- in full colour -- 100 outstanding works by 84 of British Columbiaï??s foremost artists. Finally, we have the much-needed history of the visual arts in British Columbia, one that also properly integrates our great heritage of First Nations art into the mainstream. In the introduction, Ian M. Thom outlines the art history of the p …

The images in the pages of this book -- animal, human and spirit faces -- evoke the powerful cultural legacy of the inhabitants of the Northwest Coast. Spirits of the Water presents 110 examples of the art produced by the Native peoples of a region of great linguistic, cultural and geographical diversity. Six essays by leading experts Paz Cabello, …

This important and timely book is a balance of the most gruesome elements of assimilation: church-run schools, the child welfare system, survivors of sexual abuse, and Foetal Alcohol Syndrome counter-balanced against heroic stories of children who survived, fought back, and found their way home.

Harrrowing stories are presented wherever possible i …

A much-loved Canadian classic, Pauline Johnson's Legends of Vancouver was first published in 1911 and has been in print ever since. Through her poetic, romantic retelling of these Native legends, Pauline Johnson takes the reader back to a time long ago, before the city of Vancouver was built, when the land belonged to the Squamish people. These leg …

Before he passed away, the Haida artist Bill Reid was internationally renowned for his totem poles and other large pieces, as well as for his work on a small scale in silver and gold. His masterpiece, The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, is a bronze canoe six metres (20 feet) long, filled to overflowing with the creatures of Haida mythology. Two copies of th …

A powerful coming-of-age story -- edgy, stark, and at times, darkly funny that centers around Larry, a Native teenager trying to cope with a painful past and find his place in a confusing and stressful modern world.

Larry is a Dogrib Indian growing up in the small northern town of Fort Simmer. His tongue, his hallucinations and his fantasies are ho …

An elegant reissue of a timeless collection of Haida myths, with a new preface by Claude Levi-Strauss.

Ten masterful, complex drawings by Bill Reid are accompanied by ten episodes from Haida mythology told by Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst. The result brings Haida art and mythology alive as never before in an English-speaking world. The collection …

Cape Dorset sits at the very heart of Inuit culture. Since the late 1950s, this community has symbolized the essence of Inuit art, thanks to the widely acclaimed work of artists such as Kenojuak Ashevak, Mayureak Ashoona, Pitseolak Ashoona, Qaunaq Mikkigak, Oopik Pitsiulak, Napachie Pootoogook, Lucy Qinnuayuak, Pitaloosie Saila and Ovilu Tunnillie. …

It is rare for a single work of sculpture to become the subject of a book at any time, much less at the moment of its installation. But Bill Reid's Spirit of Haida Gwaii is no ordinary sculpture. Commissioned for the courtyard of the new Canadian chancery in Washington, DC, it sits directly across the street from the National Gallery and is destine …

This book is the first life history of a Northwest Coast Indian woman. Florence Davidson, daughter of noted Haida carver and chief Charles Edenshaw, was born in 1896. As one of the few living Haida elders knowledgeable about the culture of a bygone era, she was a fragile link with the past. Living in Masset on the Queen Charlotte Islands, some fift …

From the mighty cedar of the rainforest came a wealth of raw materials vital to the early Northwest Coast Indian way of life, its art and culture. For thousands of years these people developed the tools and technologies to fell the giant cedars that grew in profusion. They used the rot-resistant wood for graceful dugout canoes to travel the coastal …

This print-on-demand title is available by request from most booksellers.

Ulli Steltzer, a distinguished photographer, takes the reader into the carving shed and studio to see Robert Davidson as he creates both monumental poles and intricately detailed powerful masks. More than 100 of her black-and-white photographs, reproduced in duotone, record both the evolution of Davidson and his art, from the early days up to the p …

In People of Terra Nullius, Boyce Richardson travels across Canada evoking the human richness of aboriginal society as it grows steadily stronger after decades of decline. Richardson journeys among the Mikmaqs of Cape Breton, the Crees and Algonquins of Quebec, the Ojibway of northern Ontario, the Metis of the Prairies, the Gitksan fo BC, the nativ …

Magnificent and haunting, the tall cedar sculptures called totem poles have become a distinctive symbol of the native people of the Northwest Coast. The powerful carvings of the vital and extraordinary beings such as Sea Bear, Thunderbird and Cedar Man are impressive and intriguing.

In clear and lively prose, Hilary Stewart describes the various t …

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Weeng, the spirit of sleep. How Odjibaa won the Red Swan. Waupee and the daughters of the star. The whispering grass. Full of mystery, a sense of awe at the surrounding world and the courage of great warriors, the mythology of Canada's Indians forms an incredibly rich source of story and legend. Whether celebrating great journeys and feats of endur …

Bold, inventive indigenous art of the Northwest Coast is distinguished by its sophistication and complexity. It is also composed of basically simple elements which, guided by a rich mythology, create images of striking power.

In Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast, the elements of style are introduced; the myths and legends which shape the …

The Haida are a proud and cultured people, whose home is Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) off the coast of Northern British Columbia. Until the first Europeans arrived in 1775, the Haida were the lords of the coast. The meeting of cultures was a fateful one: the Europeans had the advantages of firearms and immunity to their own deadly dise …

The People's Land is an expression of a particular moment in norhtern history -- the darkness, even, that preceded the light.

For some years, Hugh Brody lived and studied among the Inuit, the people fo the Arctic. His book, The People's Land, describes their recent past with sympathy and indignation. He tells how the Whites came as fur traders and …

The masterworks of Northwest Coast Indians are admired today as among the great achievements of the world's primitive artisans. The painted and carved wooden screens, chests and boxes for storage and cooking, dishes, rattles, crest hats, and other ceremonial paraphernalia reveal a rare artistic virtuosity and document the unique involvement of thes …