Dzunukwa or Wild Woman of the Woods, deeply carved, near black finish, large pursed lips and tufts of hair

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Dzunuk´wa

Wild Woman of the Woods

Dzunuk´wa by Pauline Alfred

k´a’yolatsa Dzunuk´wa ka’s. ‘Waladzi bagwanamida Dzunuk´wa. p´ap´as Halsala’am Dukwala’! Am hayulis ax’ige’sa Laxe’. ’Walas am’xa’e’ U’yida Dzunuk´wa gayula’s lame’ alax p´ap´asa’. Gax’naxwa ke’nakwala kax’s aliya xa ganganam kax’s galutła’. La naxwa’eda Dzunuk´wa, napt´sola sa gangananam laxa laxe’ laxis awige’. Kax’s le’s laxis gukw laxa at´łi. Loł’leda Dzunuk´wa dax’i xa gangananam. ‘Namuxw’la’eda gananam. I’s hiłk´olam amła dła’wis ‘wi’wa’okw Gayules udzałe’es samses. Gax’mi Dzunuk´wa daxi’d galagawe’ dax’i xa udzałe’ sams. Napt´sude’s laxa laxe’. He’am dax’i xa ‘wi’wa’okw gangananam ka’s napt´sude’s. La’am ik´i’stala laxa at´łi laxis gukw. K´awayu’nukwida gananam xa udzałe sams. La’am t´us’i xa laxe’. La’am daxwałt´so’wida gangananam ka’s dzalxw’ide’. La’am k´wak´walasus sa gananam yaxis a’amłałasu’xwdi. ‘Walas iki noke’se gangananam. Ix’idi ni’noka’yes ka’eda gananamx xa udzałes sams. Hiłk´olam amła dła’wi gayula’s la k´wak´walax.

English Transcript

The Dzunuk´wa is a big man who lives way up in the woods. He’s almost blind, and moves very slowly. He always carries a basket on his back cause he will come down from his house way up in the forest to collect children. There was a bunch of children playing, but they wouldn’t let this one boy play with them because he had deformed lips. So, the boy with deformed lips was sitting on a log trying to carve a stick with his knife. Dzunuk´wa got there and he threw the boy with the knife in his basket. Then he went over to grab all the other kids and threw them in the basket too. Then the Dzunuk´wa started to walk up to his house way up in the forest. The boy with the deformed lips used his knife to cut a whole in the basket and him and the other children escaped and ran home. After that the children treated him really good because he was a hero and saved their lives.

Catalogue Information

Provenance

Owned by Sam Charlie until its forced surrender to Indian Agent William Halliday on March 25, 1922. Halliday later displayed and photographed the seized pieces at the Parish Hall in Alert Bay. After doing an inventory, he crated the items in June, and at the end of September he shipped them to Edward Sapir at the National Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of History). They remained the property of the NMM until their repatriation by the U’mista and Nuyumbalees Cultural Societies in 1979. In 1995 Sam Charlie's daughter, Mary Beans (nee Charlie) requested her father's regalia be transferred from Nuyumbalees to U'mista for display.

Materials

Wood, Cedar; Hide; Hair, Horse; Paint

Dimensions

35.0 cm x 27.5 cm x 31.0 cm

Accession Number

95.03.013

Physical Description

Dzunuk´wa mask, carved from a single piece of wood, except for the ears which were nailed on. The mask is painted black and red with a typical Dzunuk´wa expression with pursed lips. Two rows of hair plugs are present on both sides at the top. The eyebrows, eyelashes and goatee are all fur strips nailed to the mask. The eye sockets, lips, cheeks, temples, nares and nostrils (uncarved) are all painted red. Black, red, blue, white, brown.