Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time: Kingcome Inlet Pictographs, 1893-1998

Marilyn Mardiros is an associate professor of health sciences at the
University of Ottawa.

Recent artistic resurgence of Aboriginal northwest coast art tends to
reflect an interest in imitating the past and learning to copy the
remnants of older work. In this work, Williams provides a different
perspective, suggesting that art is not stagnant, but fluid and alive.
She chronicles the story of a First Nation’s artist, Marianne
Nicolson, who combines contemporary European modernist and First Nations
conventions with her personal interest to develop a pictograph on
British Columbia’s central coast. This artwork is situated 100 metres
from a historically significant rock artwork painted in 1927. Through
Nicolson’s journey in developing the pictograph, the reader learns of
her challenges in satisfying community obligations, maintaining classic
iconography while representing culture in a contemporary manner.

Both petroglyphs and pictographs are art forms documenting ecological,
historical, social, mythological, and poetic expression. Through the
experiences of Nicolson and Williams, the reader is taken through a
community study of history in the making. The material flows between the
past and the present. The history of First Nations and European families
in the local area from 1893 to 1998 is presented along with First
Nation’s mythology as it relates to the development of the original
and the contemporary rock art. Black-and-white photographs enhance the
narrative and the layout of material is beautifully presented. The
stories in Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time are engaging reading about one
aspect of British Columbia’s coastal history.