Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, Toronto, ON

Note:

An important Kwakwaka'wakw artist from Gwa'yasdams (Gilford Island), and father of artist Basil James (Haeklas) (1938-2005), Jack James is known to have produced only a few model totem poles over his life.[1] A Jack James pole, dated ca. 1940 is included in the Michael D. Hall and Pat Glascock’s text documenting the landmark 2010 exhibit “Carvings and Commerce: Model Totem Poles 1880–2010.”[2] The pole included in the text exhibits a related theme to the present example, that however deviates in several minor aspects, including in its inclusion of a bear, and in its use of a less sculpturally developed Killer Whale in its composition.

The role of model totem poles in sustaining traditional knowledge, and Indigenous identities in the early 20th century is increasingly being recognized by scholars and collectors. The stories which makers personally associated with imagery on their model poles, is however rarely documented in words from the artists' themselves. Notably James' description of one of his own poles was recorded in a conversation with his son Basil James toward the latter part of the artist’s life.

James said of the symbols on one of his poles “they are all ours, our own (James family). We didn’t copy anybody’s”, further explaining that “Kwankwanxwalige’ (Thunderbird) is on top of the pole. He came down from Mount Stephens, right after the flood. There was a little village there, we called it K’we. He took his Thunderbird dress off and he acted like a man. On the chest of this Thunderbird is a giant, a Dzunuk’wa (Wild Woman of the Woods). On the bottom of the pole is the Max’inuxw (Killer Whale) and on his fin is the Luwagila (Raven). The Killer Whales, they save a lot of men, they take them ashore.”[3]

[1] Michael D. Hall, Pat Glascock, Carvings and Commerce: Model Totem Poles 1880-2010, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011), 209.
[2] Michael D. Hall, Pat Glascock, Carvings and Commerce: Model Totem Poles 1880-2010, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011), 128, pl. 107.
[3] The Gwa’yasdams Flood Story, Duncan.ca, Accessed 27 Aug 2024, https://duncan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/CoD_Totem_17_The-Gwayasdams-Flood-Story.pdf

Further Reading:
https://www.waddingtons.ca/art-of-the-model-totem-pole/