Gwa'sala Kwakwaka'wakw. <em>Speaker Figure</em>, 19th century. Cedar wood, pigment, 116 1/4 x 27 x 13 in. (295.3 x 68.6 x 33 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7418. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 05.588.7418_11.703a-b_SL1.jpg)

Gwa'sala Kwakwaka'wakw. Speaker Figure, 19th century. Cedar wood, pigment, 116 1/4 x 27 x 13 in. (295.3 x 68.6 x 33 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7418. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 05.588.7418_11.703a-b_SL1.jpg)

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What is a potlatch ceremony?

Potlatches were elaborate feasts, usually held in the winter that included ceremonies.They could range from minor events for children at various times in their life cycle, to more significant festivals celebrating the assumption of dance privileges to great, elaborate events including many activities: the assumption of chiefly name and position, the exchange of coppers (objects that looks like a shield made from copper with symbolic designs on it and is of great value and prestige), marriages, the erection of totem poles, and the buildings of houses. On each of these occasions, guests received payment from the host for their service as witnesses; their acceptance of these payments signified their validation of their host's claims of status, so they were also a way to re-distribute wealth within communities. Payments included button blankets (trade blankets with trade buttons sewn on in clan designs), and towering stacks of Hudson Bay trade blankets. Button Blankets were regalia that was generally worn by women. Other forms of payments included feast dishes carved from wood and horn, and coppers (pieces of valuable metal also sometimes carved), dance regalia, food, and elaborately carved rattles.

I love the shape of the eyebrows and eyes. Can you tell me anything about this iconography?

Well, the "ovoid" and "u-form" shapes of that visual language are typical for many tribes from the Northwest coast. If you look at many of the other masks or carved pieces, you can see these same circles with the pointed ends and bracket or U-forms that play with positive and negative space to make up faces of various animals and humans in an abstracted way. These types of abstraction has been termed Form Lines and studied extensively by the artist Bill Holm. Although, the iconography of a standing figure with an open mouth is common to the "speaker" figure. Each Northwest Coast Tribe often had a particular way of detailing each figure.

The Kwakwaka'wakw must have large houses to fit these in. Would everyone have a large house and speaker figure or no?

Wonderful question. Yes, Kwakwaka'wakw houses were very large, often housing more than one nuclear family. Chief's houses (larger houses) would often have speaker figures because they were used mainly during ceremonies or potlatches/festivities, not everyday. The Kwakwaka'wakw community is actually a conglomerate of 25 or so clans (another word for tribe often used in Canada). Several families would live in one structure (often extended family groups related by clan or marriage), but not an entire village and definitely not an entire tribal group. Speaker figures were generally placed outside of houses, house posts were placed inside the houses, but not houses in the typical American sense. Many families would live in one large space and the chief's family would often be separated from the more communal space with a wooden screen. Often a speaker figure was placed outside or near the shore so as to greet visitors coming off from a potlach. Most speaker figures were indeed inside (or at least all of the pictures and drawings I can see from earlier times, it looks like they were many inside).

What kind of wood is this made of?

It is made of cedar wood.

This is cool!

Hello and thank you for using our app! I see you're looking at the formidable Speaker Figure. If you look closely, you can see the beautiful texture of the carving lines up the body made by the hand adze that was used, a detail the maker wanted to highlight. The Kwakwaka'wakw still perform ceremonies and celebrations with the figures and masks you see in this gallery.

Interesting, thank you.

What was this used for?

This Speaker Figure was created by a Kwakwaka'wakw artist on the Pacific Northwest coast. It would have been used during potlatches to announce the visitors as they arrived.

The person announcing the guests would stand behind the Figure and speak through its mouth (if you look closely, the mouth is hollow and would act like a bullhorn). Traditional oration is a highly developed art, equal to a traditional singer or dancer. This person likely trained for years in oration in order to do this.

Potlatches are elaborate celebration feasts at which the host distributes lavish gifts requiring reciprocation. The feasts, which were banned by both the United States and Canadian governments from the 1880s to 1950s, can include dances, storytelling, gift exchanges, and even title exchanges.

Speaker Figure

Arts of the Americas

On View: Arts of the Americas Galleries, 5th Floor

This monumental figure represents a speaker at a potlatch, a celebratory feast at which the host distributes lavish gifts to guests. (The word potlatch, meaning “to give,” is an example of Chinook Jargon, a language formerly used for trading along the Pacific coast of Canada. ) A person standing behind the figure would have spoken through its mouth, announcing the names of the attendees. Potlatches mark important occasions such as child namings, marriages, and periods of mourning, but they also commemorate Indigenous people’s ongoing relationship with animal spirits. Potlatches continue to play a central and unifying role in Northwest Coast communities today.

CULTURE Gwa'sala Kwakwaka'wakw

MEDIUM Cedar wood, pigment

Place Collected: Smith Inlet, British Columbia, Canada

DATES 19th century

DIMENSIONS 116 1/4 x 27 x 13 in. (295.3 x 68.6 x 33 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas

ACCESSION NUMBER 05.588.7418

CREDIT LINE Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Large sculpture of a standing wood figure called a speaker figure that would have been placed outside a house where, through its hollow mouth, the chief's orator would make announcements for the community. The figure stands with arms slight bent at the sides of the figure's body. The legs are bent too. The head is oversized in proportion to the body and the neck is short. Wide bands of black eyebrows overhang large almond-shaped eyes. Nose is long and triangular; mouth is large and open. On the chin is a carved and painted goatee. Condition: fair; surface wear overall with spongy wooden areas throughout. Second photograph is the figure in situ in the village in Smith Inlet.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Arts of the Americas Galleries, 5th Floor

CAPTION Gwa'sala Kwakwaka'wakw. Speaker Figure, 19th century. Cedar wood, pigment, 116 1/4 x 27 x 13 in. (295.3 x 68.6 x 33 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7418. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , 05.588.7418_11.703a-b_SL1.jpg)

IMAGE 05.588.7418_11.703a-b_SL1.jpg.

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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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