The Tsimshian 5: Corey Moraes on Colouring in Culture and Status Signifiers (5)

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/02/15

The Tsimshian 5: Corey Moraes on Colouring in Culture and Status Signifiers (5)

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Art and rituals in the Tsimshian tradition have been described before. What are some general things to get us started on how art and ritual are integrated into that tradition?

Corey Moraes: There was never a term for art in our language, so it is symbolism with our level of communication. Many pieces only saw the light of day and were hidden away once there was a need to perform them. 

On the other end of the spectrum, until they were immediately put back into storage away from prying eyes, you have totem poles, which are everybody’s declarations viewable to everyone. My totem pole teacher, David A. Boxley, referred to them as billboards.

It was a declaration from anything like the village’s history to a chief’s lineage to a family history. One of the mistakes made very early on by the missionaries when they saw the totem poles with the outstretched wings was, “These resembled crosses and, therefore, were idols to be worshipped,” which was not the case.

Back to the masks and pieces that we used, these were all meant to convey stories or legends within the potlatch forum. All of them had stories. One of them, which I have used before, is Nax’Nox. These were celestial beings. They were not so much portraying stories as much as bringing a certain mood to the potlatch. 

I am going to go outside of Tsimshian mythology for a moment and talk about the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw people, who were formally misrepresented by the term “[missed term]. “They are in the melting pot of the Northwest Coast. They absorbed tribal traditions from everything around them.

So, many of their pieces go to the nth degree regarding the creative process. They use a lot more colours than Northern tribes did. They got into white, green, brown, and orange. Their graphic coverage of the piece followed the sculptural form, enhancing it. 

Meanwhile, Tsimshian graphics on masks bore no resemblance to the sculptural form. They were a communication apart from the sculpture itself. So, you might use the modern term: “Abstract.” Then you had the pieces. 

You are referring to ceremonial pieces right now. Boxes were used in the performances but were covered with ambiguous figures because boxes and chests could be traded up and down the coast. 

Because we came from clans, everybody, if you were a Bear Clan, Eagle Clan, Wolf Clan, or Killer Whale Clan, you would put those on your regalia, for example, because those were traded up and down the coast and did not adhere to one creature. They were very ambiguous. 

Our particular people, the Tsimshian, had secret societies. These were carving groups that kept their skills from others. It was a group that you had to be initiated into. A lot of sophisticated puppetry and articulated pieces came from secret societies. 

One of the ones historically remembered is called the Dog Eaters Society, which sounds gross. 

Jacobsen: [Laughing].

Moraes: If I go back to the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw for a moment, they had these large-scale, totem-sized masks that they would suspend from the rafters over the bonfire in the center of the dance floor. From these large masks, they would drip the inside out through the mouth of eulachon grease.

These objects were called vomiters. Vomiting is the act of dripping eulachon grease onto a bonfire, which in modern times would be considered wasteful. Because eulachon grease is supposed to be a high commodity, it is only produced in a small area of Northwest Coast America.

It was seen as a sign of wealth to destroy something of value. They would continue this with Chilcotin blankets, which would take a year or more to make and would always be commissioned by chiefs. A chief would display his wealth visually, saying, “This means nothing to me.” 

They would cut up strips of rope and hand them as gifts to high-ranking individuals of the neighbouring tribes. When the high-ranking individuals would bring this back to the village, they would have this fashioned into things like leggings and headbands. 

You see much fragmenting of the total piece in a regalia. That came directly from a decoration by the hosting village, saying, “This is how wealthy we are. We can destroy a high-cost item and give away the pieces.”

Jacobsen: Earlier in some of the responses, you mentioned how, at certain times, ceremonial objects were brought forward for a special occasion and put away, locked away, never to be seen until the next important event. What was the significance of doing that act to endow the ceremonial object with that much more symbolic meaning?

Moraes: I think you just explained it.

Jacobsen: [Laughing] Oh.

Moraes: Putting it away imbued more value in the object because everyday people could see this. The only way you could witness this was to be invited. The Coast Salish, you might have seen these masks that look like rods coming out of the eye board area. 

Once again, these are like celestial or ceremonial beings, not to be photographed or recorded in any way, shape, or form. However, anthropologists have historically used them. I have attended one ceremony.

When they come out, an interesting side note is that the dancers wear masks they cannot see. Each dancer has an attendant leading them around unquestioningly during this performance. My experience of seeing these masks with my own eyes and knowing no one else sees them – unless they are invited – imbues them with a higher level of importance. 

It is almost like you are witnessing, consciously aware, of something that does not happen often, and many people do not only have the chance if they are invited. 

Jacobsen: What about colour coding during ceremonies? Were the same colours, as far as the anthropological record goes, consistent ceremony after ceremony or an adaptation over time? Even for different ceremonies, were there different colours used there as well?

Moraes: Are you referring to regalia or performance-scape?

Jacobsen: Performance regalia and the ceremonial objects as well, too.

Moraes: That always had to do with what was available then. Many times, things were monotone. The pigments we derived from things we knew about. When the Settlers came, they brought pigment powders from things like Asia. Those started to become part of our colour palette. 

So, when you start seeing colours other than black and red, and, maybe, a yellow-ish, showing timelines, it is post-Contact; if I could loop back around to the objects that do not get seen often before they renovated the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, you could go through the collections and see things through the glass display cases.

I am sure you have done that yourself. In certain areas, you would see a box with a sign above it: ‘It is a sacred ceremonial object that cannot be viewed or put on display.’ When I see one of those, that is what I want to do [Laughing]. I want to see it. It elevates its value. It puts an exclusivity on it.

We came from a very superstitious people. For God’s sake, we had medicine men, what we called “shamans.” The shamans’ paraphernalia was only to be seen if it was used. We had the big houses, Tsimshian in particular. 

They were known for embellishing our house fronts with graphic imagery. Inside the house, we were not allowed to see masks inside walls like collectors. Unlike totem poles, these were items with a voice and a spirit that diminished if left out in the open all the time. 

Jacobsen: Now, when we discuss, we are the symbolic representation of things considered sacred in the tradition, things considered necessary, and those with a higher importance. In the culture, you do not put a dollar or barter value on them. 

We discussed this when we first met. What were some of the animal or animal-spirit representations that would further indicate, “This is what the ceremony is about and for”?

Moraes: That is a good question. There is a book that came out through Italy. This essential publication, Tangible Visions, focused solely on shamanic amulets, battles, regalia, and many Bear Clan crowns, which the shamans always wore. 

Shamans derived their power from their hair, which was never to be combed or cut. Shamans would seek vision quests, where they would go far outside of the village and starve themselves.

Sometimes, they would take hallucinogenic items with them and achieve visions. They would come back. One of my favourite creatures to create in any form is the octopus. It was established that the strongest shamans had at least eight spirit guides. 

The octopus has eight legs. So, they viewed that as a pinnacle. Cormorant rattles, for example, were solely used by shamans. Whenever you see a Raven rattle, that is always allocated to a chief, but globe rattles cormorant rattles, and amulets.

The shaman solely used these things. Specifically, the Tsimshian was the sole catcher, a double-headed amulet worn around the neck. It was hollow and had a face on each side with an open mouth. It was supposed to capture the sick part of a patient’s soul. 

The shaman would coerce the evil out of their patient through a series of rituals in which they would use their rattles, their amulets, and small figurines. They would coerce out the negative energy and capture it.

Jacobsen: Were other threads or weaves in the cultures and practices that kept the individual events and objects consistent but were also part of the Tsimshian’s seasonal life? So, you have a case in which people look forward to events. However, they are merely landmarks to more significant aspects of tradition, lifestyle, etc. 

Moraes: You are asking about the ceremony. Is it about the people who created it or who view it?

Jacobsen: The people in the culture at large. 

Moraes: For example, the carvers were all carving in the off-season. During the on-season, they were hunting, and they were hunters and fishermen. We were a static community. We did not move with the herd like the people did not. 

When the fishing and hunting season was over, we had much time to create and hold ceremonies during the fall and winter months. Does that answer your question?

Jacobsen: I can make this more concrete by an analogy. So, in North American culture, 2/3rds of the culture identify as Christian in Canada. In that population, they have Christmas. They have Easter.

These are symbolic representations, at minimum, of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection in their culture, but they take these as landmarks for the overarching narrative of their lives year after year. 

Similarly, with ceremonies in the Tsimshian (culture), did these perform a similar function?

Moraes: Yes, they would celebrate the abundance of harvest, the return of salmon, and the cycle of life. We are the people of salmon, so there is much reverence for that food source. 

That kind of answers it. We were subsistence doesn’t. When it came to where we resided, Bill Reid said this once: We would walk out of our front door. There was a veritable abundance of everything that you needed to survive. 

You could forage for shell life on the low tide, like clams and oysters. Right? You could capture an octopus. You could go out where the salmon gathered on the river streams and capture salmon and herring. You could harvest herring eggs by laying out spruce or pine branches for them to lay their eggs on – kelp in other areas. 

When they did do that, it was a delicacy of ours. For example, the first one of the eulachon is highly revered amongst our people. The ceremony acknowledges all those abundances. A good portion of the performance acknowledged our connection to and survival and, at times, our survival through the natural resources surrounding our people.

Jacobsen: When colonization came, by which I mean European Christian Settlers enforced themselves onto the population, how did the early imposition of Christian culture – and we talked about this a bit – change the structure of those ceremonies or, at least, the representation of the ceremonial object? 

Before, there was complete colonization, somewhere between pre-contact and the ravages of colonization. 

Moraes: You will understand. They abolished the potlatch system.

Jacobsen: That was the first to go?

Moraes: They believed the potlatch system was essential to our people’s social structure. At first, people were mistaken in thinking totems were idols to be worshiped, but they went further. I am sure one of the first things they tried to abolish was shaman rituals because those are considered pagan and primitive. 

They do not belong to any religious contact. Beyond that, they saw that the potlatch system was our notary public. They did not know that. They did not do a bunch of rituals. They wanted to get rid of that. It was outlawed. We were jailed if found to be practicing it. 

The Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw never lost their historic performances, like the [title]. They shifted their potlatch system to around Christmas so that if any official showed up or they were celebrating Christmas and exchanging gifts. 

However, the Settler image never permeated the potlatch system. There were a few tourist pieces made; this mainly happened with the Haida because the Haida were responsible primarily or were at the forefront of several Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw individuals in maintaining the craft by creating pieces that the sailors would trade for these items made of Argillite. 

They were made from wood, like miniature totems, for example. They broke free from the traditional imagery they used up until that point. For example, they would start to make a pipe with a European sailor’s figure on it. Right?

Charles Edenshaw is one of the guys who are remembered historically for continuing the craft through tourism and trading pieces. In the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, there were Willie Seaweed and Mungo Martin, two of the big names among their people who continued their craft by adapting it to the interests of the traveling sailors who came through.

To a lesser degree, amongst the Tsimshians, at least one individual created his pieces, which, in my estimation, were nowhere near the pieces of Haida, Charles Edenshaw, Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, Willie Seaweed, and Mungo Martin.

They were created to a lesser degree. Many of the killer renderings that he made on paper documented the post-contact interactions with non-Natives as they came by. 

Jacobsen: Are there any of the big names that come to mind? 

Moraes: There was only one name. I cannot remember it right now. I do not need help to leave through one of my books. I only have a paddle of his. It is about 12 inches long. What’s most powerful is the What it; it looks like he did this on watercolour. I wonder if they had markers done then.

It was not traditional pigments, however. The people on the back who had been signing it. These old names, they would date them. The dates on this paddle went back to at least the ’30s, so it was early in the 20th century.

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