McCord 2019: Haida - Supernatural Stories

Sding K’awXangs—Haida: Supernatural Stories

A Look at Haida Culture

April 23 - October 27, 2019 

McCord Museum has launched a new exhibition featuring the Haida Indian art and crafts from the archipelago of Haida Gwaii on Canada’s northwest coast. It features more than 100 rare objects, most of which came from the McCord Museum’s rich Indigenous Cultures collection. It also includes works by contemporary artists. This is an immersive exhibition of Haida culture of yesterday and today that showcases the beauty and unique treasures of people that were almost wiped out in the late 19th century. 

In addition to objects that originally came from a private collection of an adopted Montrealer George Mercer Dawson and were later incorporated into the McCord Museum’s collection, the exhibition showcases works by contemporary Haida artists that were selected by the guest curator Kwiaahwah Jones.

The exhibition highlits various aspects of Haida culture such as a unique artistic expressive vocabulary in-bedded into individual objects by various artists, the meaning they put into their works, the mastery of their individual techniques, and the spiritual context and essence they incorporate into their pieces. This always parallels the supernatural stories that inhabit and animate their artifacts. Also, the spiritual meaning of coming together within their community and utilizing the artistic creations at such gatherings and potlatches is also brought into focus.

Kwiaahwah Jones, Haida guest curator of the exhibition, stated:

“Descended from supernatural beings that emerged from the ocean, our people have occupied Haida Gwaii since time immemorial, surviving many challenges over the millennia. Today, we continue to work hard to build up our culture and our art, to preserve our endangered language and to heal from intergenerational trauma, all the while protecting and respecting the natural and supernatural worlds. The survival of the Haida is a story to be told, retold and celebrated.”

The legacy of adopted Montrealer George Mercer Dawson

The objects in Sding K’awXangs—Haida: Supernatural Stories are a testament to the know-how of the Haida culture, from the late 18th century to today. Most of them were collected in 1878 by adopted Montrealer, geologist and early anthropologist George Mercer Dawson on one of his trips through Haida Gwaii. The eldest son of Sir John William Dawson, principal of McGill University from 1855 to 1893, George Mercer Dawson was the source of most of the Haida objects now in the McCord Museum’s Indigenous Cultures collection. When his work took him to Haida Gwaii, Dawson was struck with admiration for the Haida people and their culture, which sparked his lifelong desire to preserve it.

The McCord Museum

Custodian of the vast Indigenous Cultures collection

The McCord Museum’s Indigenous Cultures collection consists of over 16,500 archaeological and historic artefacts recounting nearly 12,000 years of history—eloquent examples of the material culture of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis, primarily from Canada. It explores the deep meaning of the artefacts not just as historical evidence, but as expressions of the development, evolution and constant revitalization of Indigenous cultures. The Indigenous Cultures collection is a key component of the McCord’s permanent collections.

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For more information, visit the McCord Museum website.