Forest spirit mask, feminine appearance, red lips and trim surrounding nostrils, rosy cheeks and long cedar bark trim
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Atłak´ima

Dance of the Forest Spirits Mask - Woman Giving Birth

Catalogue Information

Provenance

Owned by Harry Mountain 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 some of them to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, on long-term loan from the National Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of History). They remained in the possession of the ROM until the NMM pulled its loan and returned the pieces to the Nuyumbalees and U'mista cultural societies in 1988.

Materials

Wood; Bark, Cedar; Raffia; Fabric; Metal, Nails

Accession Number

88.06.003

Physical Description

Atłak´ima (Dance of the Forest Spirits) Mask belonging to Harry Mountain from the Mamalilikala. This humanoid mask has a soft round face with rosy cheeks, red nostrils and thick red lips. The cedar bark trim around the rim is quite long and may suggest long hair.