Bella Bella: A Season of Heiltsuk Art

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Bella Bella is about a B.C. coastal people renowned for their art.
Arlene Wilson, Head of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, writes in the
foreword, “This is a book about Heiltsuk art, an expression of our
identity. But it goes beyond artifacts to reveal the lives of those who
made the art.”

We are also provided with a history of the Heiltsuk, beginning with a
special collection of art and artifacts made by the Reverend Dr. R.W.
Large, who worked as a missionary and medical superintendent at Bella
Bella in the late 19th century. The author believes that the
ethnological marginalization of the Heiltsuk by anthropologists and
collectors was a direct consequence of the arrival of fur traders and
missionaries: “The community came to resemble (outwardly, not
culturally) a European-style town. Heiltsuk culture was, quite wrongly,
perceived as no longer ‘authentic.’”

Black’s substantial text is illustrated with black-and-white
photographs of people and communities, and with handsome colored photos
of Heiltsuk art: distinctive masks, baskets, mats, hats, poles, cradles,
house posts, walking sticks, boxes, and feast bowls—all bespeaking a
rich cultural heritage.

An illustrated catalogue of the R.W. Large Collection is included in
this illuminating exploration of a neglected area of First Nations art
and culture.