Kwak'wanigaml (Heron headdress)

ca. 1890

(Gayusdisa'las) Kwakwaka'wakw, Kwikwasutinexw, Kingcome, died 1953

Solitary blue herons stand silently on coastlines and in wetlands perched on their thin legs. They wade slowly, sometimes point their head and beak skyward, and often seem as still as a statue. This object includes the sinuous neck and long beak of a heron but no legs beause the heron’s shape has been adapted to serve as a headdress. Stylized designs add a distinctive feature on the crest, wings, and tail. One can only imagine the striking vision of the heron striding into a ceremony atop the head of a leader who honors one of his crest animals.

Red cedar, nails, paint

26 x 13 1/2 x 17 in.

Gift of John H. Hauberg

91.1.31

Provenance: Michael R. Johnson, Seattle, Washington, until 1969; John H. Hauberg, Seattle, Washington, 1969-1991; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryLondon, England, Kansas City, Missouri, Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art, 1976-77.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Box of Daylight, Sept. 15, 1983 - Jan. 8, 1984.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Native Visions: Northwest Coast Art, 18th Century to the Present, Oct. 1, 1998 - Jan. 31, 1999.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Vancouver Art Gallery, The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art, May 28 - Oct. 2, 2011.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Collects Northwest Coast Native Art, Feb. 12 - May 17, 2015.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Double Exposure: Edward S. Curtis, Marianne Nicolson, Tracy Rector, Will Wilson, June 4 - Sept. 9, 2018.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Pacific Species, Dec. 12, 2022 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesAdes, Dawn, Vancouver, British Columbia, Vancouver Art Gallery, The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art, 2011, pg. 253

The Spirit Within: Northwest Coast Native Art from the John H. Hauberg Collection", Seattle Art Museum, 1995, pg. 240

Holm, Bill, Box of Daylight: Northwest Coast Indian Art, Seattle Art Museum, University of Washington Press, 1983, no. 53, p. 45, illus.

Coe, Ralph T., Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1977, no. 324, p. 146, illus.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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