Photo Gallery

Alert Bay is, without a doubt, one of the centers of the contemporary Kwakiutl community. This is where the Nimkish iived, once the third most powerful Kwakiutl group. Pictured is the current president of the village, Chief Pat Alfred, with one of his grandchildren.

Among the potlatch goods that were confiscated from the Nimkish in 1921 was this hawk mask, the guardian spirit of a chief. It was returned to the Nimkish and, since 1980, has been on exhibit in Alert Bay at the U’mista Cultural Centre. (See page 134.)

A Nimkish fishing boat is returning to the harbor at Alert Bay early in the morning. The downriggers for nets and lines are in a vertical position.

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.

In carving this mask in 1985, the artist, Tim Paul, was inspired by a fairly rare motif in Nootka culture and was guided by the well-known original in the de Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. As the round, calling mouth indicates, this is a Tsonoquoa mask. The forest giantess was actually known only to the Kwakiutl, not to the Nootka. The northern Nootka, however, carried on commerce with the Nimkish Kwakiutl and also traded masks with them.