Nuu-chah-nulth

Carved and painted onto wood, stone, bone, animal skins or metal, woven and knit into cloth, material culture from Northwest Coast Native peoples has historically been a one-of-a-kind iteration and a declaration of of familial rights and privileges.  These items adorned public and private spaces, including the body, and were traditionally produced by hand.  In recent years, some designs have been serialized and mass produced through new technologies like silk screen and digital printing, adorning everything from coffee mugs to t-shirts, sunglasses, jewelry and other garments (Roth 2012; Roth 2015). This chapter explores the history of Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations specifically and analyzes their distinctive aesthetics and design practice through the lens of fashion theory.  The chapter concludes with a discussion of contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth designers and the circulation of their work.  I ask: how does fashion operate within Nuu-chah-nulth social organization and how has ongoing colonialism and hybridization of prestige and capitalist economies transformed Nuu-chah-nulth fashion systems and design ideas? The findings discussed in this chapter draw from ongoing ethnographic research (beginning in October 2009) and archival- and museum-based research at both major and minor institutional repositories in the United States, Canada, Germany and England.

The practice of using drawing and image rendering to declare rights and histories is long-standing among Nuu-chah-nulth people on the west coast of Vancouver Island. This article analyzes a collection of images created in 1916 by Douglas Thomas, a Nuu-chah-nulth man from the Tseshaht First Nation. His eldest son, Alex Thomas, sold these drawings to linguistic anthropologist Edward Sapir, who was at the time in charge of the anthropology division of the Geological Survey of Canada. The drawings depict critically important cultural information about ceremonial practices and protocols and are similar in style and content to the much larger-scale cedar screens (kiitsaksuu-ulthim) and cloth curtains (thliitsapilthim) of the same time period. By returning facsimile and digital copies to the family of origin, this research illustrates how anthropologists may play a role in fostering productive and reciprocal relationships between Native source communities and the archives that hold some of their treasured information.

From contact with Indigenous people in Northwest Canada until recently, Christian missions did not require a contextual Christian approach. Their cultural uniqueness and spirituality were obliviated under the colonial banner of civilization and Christianization. From a consequential point of view, the long years of Indigenous missionary work were ineffective, assessed by the outcome that they primarily regarded Christianity as a white people's religion. The contextual approach of the mission recognizes the kind of Christianity the cultural characteristics possessed by the traditional Indigenous peoples. Since the Indigenous construct of Christian theology is to know how Christianity is construed in indigenous thought-world and culture, the Anthropological Model of Contextual Theology suggests a right-fit methodology. A contextual approach to theology is a radical departure from traditional theology and concerns the syncretistic or dualistic religion. But an Indigenous Christianity must be understood at the fundamental philosophical level and constructed with similar cultural concepts.  This study builds Indigenous Christianity through a cultural understanding of the Trinity and the cultural expressions of doctrines and attempts to locate Christ in its culture.

This paper is a reflection on aikido as a tool for teaching about elicitive conflict transformation and the larger field of peace and conflict studies. One of the central difficulties of teaching elicitive conflict transformation is that, as an adaptive and emergent method, it is non-prescriptive and therefore conventional didactics are inappropriate. The aim is to add to the existing corpus of literature on aikido and elicitve conflict transformation by combining the philosophical perspectives presented in this paper. The reflection builds on a comparison of Canadian First Nation's philosophy, the Japanese martial art aikido, and the Heideggerian term Verwindung as complementary philosophical approaches that can potentially deepen the understanding of elicitive conflict transformation. From the starting point of the Indigenous Canadian perspective from the Hesquiaht Nation, the term wiwikink' api' is introduced, which means 'fighting with no one. ' From there, aikido is presented as both a physical and spiritual practice that teaches non-aggression and balancing forces and it is compared to Verwindung. The three philosophical approaches have notable similarities that emphasize the core principles of elicitive conflict transformation: non-dualistic perception, self-awareness, and perpetual twisting. The final remarks draw parallels between these reflections and the state of the art of elicitive conflict transformation.

Thliitsapilthim (designed ceremonial partitions) are textiles used by Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations families to display their crests, which declare rights, responsibilities, and prestige.  These large murals adorn and transform spaces, from secular to ceremonial, during potlatches and other significant events. This paper combines nearly a decade of ethnographic fieldwork with archival- and museum-based research to argue that thliitsapilthim function as important legal documents for Nuu-chah-nulth peoples and make declarations about rights to territories, natural resources, ceremonial privileges, and family histories.

This thesis considers the Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw testimonies before the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia (1913-1916).  To objectively analyze these testimonies content analysis was employed.  Some issues considered by Aboriginal testifiers were land additions, Aboriginal title, local education, health care, non-traditional economic activities, and non-Native territorial expansion.  The importance of these issues is similar for the Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw and the primary concern is additional lands. 

A comparison with Naneen Stuckey’s 1981 study of the Tsimshian testimonies reveals a relatively high similarity of concerns among these Nations, although the Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw are more similar to each other than either is to the Tsimshian.

By considering the Aboriginal testimonies one gains an understanding of the important issues and the First Nation perspective earlier this century.  Given the significance of Aboriginal issues in British Columbia today, this provides an important historical background.

A "manifest content analysis" of testimonies before the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia (1913-1916) by Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and Tsimshian people shows that many of the themes and concerns voiced then continue as major themes and concerns to Aboriginal negotiators today. There was a strong desire both to secure access and control of the traditional resource base and to secure opportunities to participate in the contemporary British Columbia economy.

During several stages of contact with Europeans, changes occurred in the lives of the Nuu-chahnulth. After the period of the lucrative fur trade in the initial contact period, commercial expansion and operation of the Hudson's Bay Company 1 started on the West coast. Political measures also accompanied commercial expansion. Missionary activities began in 1875 with a Roman Catholic priest at Hesquiaht. By the 1890s, several Roman Catholic missions were established in the mid-West coast of Vancouver Island. The Anglicans and Methodists also began their activities. Residential schools were established in the late 1800s. The education policy of the colonial government and the residential schools compulsorily removed children from their families. This caused dissonant family relationships and weakened traditional institutions. Through the residential school, the children came into contact with the Christian faith. Residential schools served as a conduit through which a brand of Western education and civilization was brought to the Indigenous people.

13-16/10/2021: “the language of uncultivated man, in remote and fresh discovered quarters of the globe”:  Nuu-chah-nulth people and the conceptualization of linguistic otherness in the account of Cook’s third voyage, Canadian Society for the 18th Century Study & the Midwestern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Translation and appropriation in the long eighteenth century, University of Winnipeg.

John Webber (Johann Wäber, 1751-1792) accompanied James Cook on his Third Voyage around the world as the expedition’s artist.  After his return to Europe, he moved back to his hometown Bern, Switzerland. In 1791, he donated a collection of items gathered during the voyage to the local public library. Over time, some of the Webber material left the collection under unknown circumstances, other pieces were misattributed and misplaced. 

The aim of this article is to shed some light on what has happened and, in some cases, suggest corrections.

Full text: https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/john-webber-collection-bern-historical-museum

This article uses ethnographic methods to explore the stories, lives, and practices of a handful of contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth weavers: from teenage girls to eighty-something-year-old women.  These weavers perpetuate an ancient weaving technology and cultural practice that has been passed down for many thousands of years.  In the past, knowledge about weaving, such as design motifs, has tended to move through genealogical lines, connecting women today to their ancestors of the past.  However, Nuu-chah-nulth women are also transforming this practice--demonstrating that weaving is dynamic and changing.  While weaving connects people to their pasts, I suggest that it is also shaped by the present, by weavers' lives and experiences, and by their anticipation of the future.