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Yadan (round rattle)

Photo: Paul Macapia

Yadan (round rattle)

ca. 1940

Mungo Martin (Nakapankam)

Kwakwaka'wakw, Kwagu'l, Fort Rupert, British Columbia, ca. 1884-1962

Round rattles are associated on the Northwest Coast with shamans. Participants in the t’seka Winter Ceremonial are called pépakhula, the Kwakwala word for shaman, denoting its ancient sacred aspects. Martin and others of his generation employed a vivid white as background color. The image appears to be the frontal view of a bird, whose beak turns downward above the mouth.
Wild cherry wood, red cedar bark, paint, twine, cotton
12 1/2 x 9 x 4 1/2 in. (31.75 x 22.86 x 11.43 cm)
Gift of John H. Hauberg
91.1.4
Provenance: Micheal R. Johnson, Seattle, Washington, until 1973; John H. Hauberg, Seattle, Washington, 1973-1991; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
Photo: Paul Macapia
location
Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, Selections From The Hauberg Collection, August 22, 1985 - March 16, 1986

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Box of Daylight, September 15, 1983 - January 8, 1984
Published ReferencesThe Spirit Within: Northwest Coast Native Art from the John H. Hauberg Collection, Seattle Art Museum, 1995, pg. 224

Stewart, Hilary, Cedar: Tree of Life to the Northwest Coast Indians, University of Washington Press, 1984, p. 155

Holm, Bill, Box of Daylight: Northwest Coast Indian Art, Seattle Art Museum, University of Washington Press, 1983, cat. no. 26

Wade, Edwin L. and Lorraine Laurel Wade, Voices of the Supernaturals: Rattles of the Northwet Coast, American Indian Art Magazine, vol.2, no. 1 (Winter 1976), fig. 2, p. 34.

Other Documentation: Illustrated in American Indian Art Magazine Calendar, month of April, 1981.

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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