Edward Curtis Meets the Kwakwaka’wakw November 17, 2008

The mandate of the U’mista Cultural Society, incorporated under the British Columbia Societies Act on March 22, 1974, is to ensure the survival of all aspects of the cultural heritage of the Kwakwaka’wakw. The central objective of the U’mista Cultural Centre is to nurture and steward this cultural heritage through education of both visitors and the Kwak’wala-speaking community. U’mista is one of the longest-operating and most successful First Nations cultural facilities in BC, founded in 1980 as a ground-breaking project to house repatriated potlatch artifacts that had been seized by the government during an earlier period of cultural repression. U’mista maintains a modern museum, cultural education facility, and human resources infrastructure in Alert Bay.

The U’mista Cultural Centre is currently co-coordinating a large and ambitious project to restore the 1914 silent film made by the famous photographer Edward Curtis with the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations in British Columbia, and to screen it along with a live arrangement of the original musical score and a dance performance by 15 Kwakwaka'wakw (please see our extensive website: www.curtisfilm.rutgers.edu). The event will feature a live arrangement of the original orchestral score to accompany the film, followed by a Kwakwaka'wakw-hosted song and dance presentation drawn from the rituals depicted in the film. Performers include descendants of the original film participants and owners of the appropriate dances; they speak personally to hereditary protocols around the transmission and display of Kwakwaka'wakw dance as well as to the historical and political context of the 1914 filmmaking encounter (when the potlatch ceremonies, aspects of which are depicted in the film, were outlawed in Canada). These events will highlight the collaborative nature of the initial filmmaking encounter, and emphasize the continuity of Kwakwaka'wakw ceremonial performance across shifting colonial and historical experience.

More details will be posted when available.

Official Website: http://www.fieldmuseum.org