Traditional Governance

"In 1998, Dzawada'enuxw artist Marianne Nicholson scaled a vertical rock face in Kingcome Inlet to paint a massive pictograph to mark the continued vitality of her ancestral village of Gwa'yi. Documenting Nicholson's painting of the new pictograph, Williams describes the symbiosis of old and new that has seen Gwa'yi and the Kwakwaka'wakw prevail despite all attempts to eradicate their culture."

Harry Assu's recollections tell the little-known story of the Lekwiltok from legendary times to the present. Drawing on the oral traditions of his people, he narrates the story of the Great Flood which gave sacred sanction to territories settled by them.

"Kwakwaka'wakw director Barb Cranmer has created two short films that recreate the experience of the modern-day potlatch, still praticed in her community of Alert Bay, British Columbia. The first film is a 10-minute narrative documentary showing the potlatch cerremony and discussing its importance in the passing down of history and connection to ancestry."

"Every spring the people of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation travel to Knight Inlet on the BC coast for the annual harvest of eulachon, a small fish from which they extract t'lina, an oil which occupies a central place in their traditional culture and economy. Combining footage of a contemporary harvest with archival images, Cranmer raises the alarm on the uncertain future facing this vital cultural practice and offers a lively history of a dynamic coastal First Nation."