Photo Gallery

Similar to other Northwest Coast villages, the new community centers are being modeled on traditional building styles. This is the longhouse of New Aiyansh, on which a thunderbird and several killer whales have been painted.

Of the four supporting posts of the ceremonial house in Alert Bay, the two posts in back are identically carved with the figure of the forest giantess Tsonoquoa with a thunderbird. The cross beam represents the two-headed sea monster Sisiutl. The carving was done by a local artist, Henry Speck. The board wall, which shields the sacred part of the ceremonial house, depicts a thunderbird and a killer whale.

This mortuary pole with Tsonoquoa and the thunderbird stands in the cemetery at Alert Bay. It is one of the masterpieces of Willie Seaweed, who carved it in 1931.

In 1980 the Nimkish Kwakiutl in Alert Bay opened the new Umista Cultural Centre. Its front, decorated with a thunderbird and killer whale, is patterned after an old chiefs house.

The Coast Salish artist Susan A. Point created this modern round drum. It consists of a red cedar frame covered with deer skin. The thunderbird in double profile is painted in the style of a spinning whorl. This type of drum is used today in place of a drum board as accompaniment for the songs sung during a stick game (see 53). (44 cm)