Solitary Raven: Selected Writings of Bill Reid

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

From the dazzling works by Bill Reid (d. 1998) currently on display in
the National Gallery, Ottawa, and in Vancouver, one can only agree with
editor Robert Bringhurst’s claim that the sculptor “was more widely
and more fervently admired than any other native artist in North
America.”

Solitary Raven, printed on fine paper with many small black-and-white
photographs of Reid’s engravings, constitutes an impressive and moving
celebration of the vision that fueled this master carver. Curiously,
words were the carver’s first professional medium. Reid, whose Haida
names included “Kihlguulins,” “The One with the beautiful
voice,” initially made his living as a radio announcer and
scriptwriter.

This book collects the most important of Reid’s scattered writings on
Northwest Coast art, on the role of Aboriginal artists in a
multicultural world, and the vital place of both artist and environment
in the survival of human culture. Thirty short pieces span 40 years of
Reid’s career. Bringhurst calls this compilation “a small act of
gratitude and homage to a man who was my teacher and my friend ... a
stand-in for the father I had earlier disowned.”

Bringhurst’s 21-page introduction affords a useful entry point for
the work with its reflections on this difficult and endlessly
fascinating artist. In Haida language, “Haida” means “human
being.” Reid’s carvings and reflections on both his own work and the
traditions of Northwest Coast art may help readers and viewers to
understand some of the mysteries of their own existence.