Spirit in the Stone

Mima Kapches is head of the Department of Anthropology at the Royal
Ontario Museum.

Spirit in the Stone is a focused and well-illustrated study of rock art
sites, in particular petroglyphs, on Quadra Island, which is situated
off the eastern coast of Vancouver Island. Petroglyphs are images pecked
into the surface of the rock by First Peoples.

Inglis discusses how petroglyphs were made and presents the many
interpretations concerning the images reported. She draws heavily on the
traditional Native view as well as on anthropological work. Many of the
images are on large boulders that are covered by water at high tide. The
meanings assigned to the images are complex and varied. Some mark
physical areas where significant natural events occurred (such as
locations where fish runs occur) and where, it is suggested, images
(large circular eyes) acted as a conduit to the mythological world for
these natural events to take place (the fish run coming through the
eyes).

The rock art images are distributed through the northern circum-Pacific
area (although the tracing of their distribution is not Inglis’s goal,
she does refer to the larger art/shamanistic complex). The antiquity of
these images is difficult to assess because of their undatable context,
but older images (circa 3000 years) as well as recent images (European
ships) indicate that rock art was a long-lived tradition. Each site is
described in detail with meaning assigned to the images at each
location.

Maps show the locations of the rocks but there is not enough detail to
allow looters to find and destroy them. Travel to the sites can be quite
tricky and taking into account tidal flows in some situations could be
dangerous for the unwary. Spirit in the Stone is a good source of
information on these unique rock art features.