"Early in 1892, more than seventeen Haida artists were commissioned to carve a model of their village of Skidegate on Haida Gwaii. The model, displayed at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, is the only North American example of an aboriginal village systematically documented by its own nineteenth-century residents. It originally featured twenty-nine house and forty-three totem pole models; after the exposition, the model was dispersed and many pieces were lost over time. However, ten houseand twenty-two totem pole models remain in Chicago in the collection of the Field Museum of Natural History, and two additional model houses with seven totem poles have been located in other collections. In this highly collaborative research project, Wright combines interviews with members of the Skidegate community today with close study of the extant parts of the model along with a review of the documentation collected in 1892 to bring both the model and the village and community it documents into fullview. The community engaged research and resulting book offers valuable insights into Northwest Coast art history and will be a significant cultural resource for the Haida Nation"--
In 1892 seventeen Haida artists were commissioned to carve a model of HlGaagilda Llnagaay (the village of Skidegate on Haida Gwaii, British Columbia) for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The Skidegate model, featuring twenty-nine large houses and forty-two poles, is the only known model village in North America carved by nineteenth-century Indigenous residents of the village it portrayed. Based on over twenty years of collaborative research with the Skidegate Haida community, the book features vital cultural context. Robin K. Wright explores how Haida people represented their culture to the outside world at a time when they were suffering from devastating population loss due to introduced diseases and from ongoing attempts by the settler government to suppress their culture by making the potlatch illegal. While promoters of the Chicago World’s Fair used the village to celebrate the perceived “progress” of the dominant society, for Skidegate residents it provided a means to preserve their history and culture. After the exposition, many models were dispersed to the Field Museum of Natural History and other collections, but fourteen of the model houses have not yet been located. The book provides extensive archival information and photographs that contextualize the model village and might help locate the missing houses. Wright’s community-engaged research offers valuable insights into Northwest Coast art history.
Lisainfo e-raamatute kohta