Three Birds

After some delay - namely, fighting with some cruddy bug last weekend, and the effects of the "Spring Ahead" time change, here are the next three pieces. They are shown dry-assembled - which means they haven't been glued together yet. It makes it much easier to stain them when they are all apart! These three are all birds.

This is not really a mask - it's a 'dance object'. It would have been hung suspended from the ceiling of the kasgiq, or community house, where the dances and storytelling took place. Some such dance objects could be raised and lowered, or made to look as if they were flying/moving. The effect was much like the stage of a play - everything was arranged to set the scene. There were masks hung on the walls, some very large masks that were suspended from the ceiling, behind which dancers would stand, maybe puller strings to open and close jaws, or make wings flap.

Although the book from which I got this piece, Ann Riordan's "Our Way of Making Prayer" identifies it as a 'thresher shark' kayak, riding upon the back of a loon, I don't think that's what either animal is. I believe the bird is a murre - a powerful diving bird that spent its time upon the ocean. Murres are black and white, as this bird is in the original. But they don't have spots, and they have a more compact, streamlined body, and shorter, thicker bill. I believe the kayak is not a 'thresher shark', but a sei whale. Sei whales are common in Arctic waters, and are the smallest of the baleen whales. They were usually gray with white splotches, and have a more streamlined appearance than the larger grey whale. In the original, this kayak/whale is white. The kayaker wears a traditional hunting hat, which were common among Kodiak Alutiiqs, and Aleuts. They were made from steam-bent wood, and decorated profusely with wave and sea-mammal and fish designs, ivory, and sea-lion or seal whiskers. Later hats were adorned with glass trade beads as well. The man holds a traditional paddle, with a leaf-shaped blade.



This is " Snowy Owl with Inua". It is a transformation mask - sporting human-like arms with almost animal-like paws. The yua, or human being is portrayed on the owl's back. You can tell it's a woman by the frown.



This piece is a "Diving Loon" mask. It's also a transformation mask, as shown by the human arms and legs. The loon was a powerful bird because of its ability to travel between the three spiritual worlds: water, air and land. The appendage to the right of the bird is an ulu blade, which is a woman's knife. There is a mate to the knife blade, not shown in this photo, which I think is a skinning or flensing knife. The two knife blades might illustrate the dual nature of shamans and all living beings - male and female.



I put the first coat of stain on these pieces tonight. Hope to have the staining done over the weekend - now that the weather's warmer, things dry much faster!