Explores the life and work of renowned Haida artist Robert Davidson.
Gyaangee
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
In this beautiful and informative short film, famed Haida artist Robert Davidson carves his latest monumental totem pole and gives a rare insight into the deeper meanings of the imagery found on North Coast Indigenous art works.
The articulate and engaging master carver shows how he once created a totem pole called ‘We Were Once Silenced’; a work dedicated to the memory of the wrongs suffered by his people at the hands of the captains of colonization. In his new, more hopeful work however, Robert celebrates the cultural and political reawakening of the Indigenous peoples of the world in general, and the Haida Nation particular, with a pole called ‘Gyaangee: Beyond Being Silenced’.
The viewer is treated to the extraordinarily beautiful shapes and curves of the master’s work. We’re astonished to see the peerless level of craft skill from the artist’s unwavering hands: work so fine that his knife produces a finish much smoother than sandpaper ever could. But most importantly we’re given access to the mysterious world of the supernatural creatures who populate Haida mythology and their spiritual world view.
"Vibrant as the painted pole itself, the story of Gyaangee: Beyond Being Silenced beautifully illustrates what happens when you invite creativity into the world. The film reveals Robert Davidson's dedication to collaboration and knowledge sharing. We witness the artist's deep knowledge of how to bring Haida histories into physical form as he brings this pole to life." Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, Director, Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Native Art, University of Washington
"Robert Davidson has carved dozens of totem poles. This visual biography accompanies the artist as he creates a unique pole - one that he has 'always wanted do.' Gyaangee: Beyond Being Silenced addresses settler oppression with references to residential school crimes, cultural devastation, and a history denied. But works like this intensify empowerment and recognition, articulating a robust voice no longer silenced. This is a compelling and moving film of Davidson's optimistic artistic interpretation of colonialism and its downfall." Aldona Jonaitis, Director Emerita, Museum of the North, University of Alaska, Author, Art of the Northwest Coast
"Gyaangee is a wonderfully produced short film that snapshots and introduces the viewer to an iconic Indigenous cultural art form as well as one of its master craftsmen. With a gentle reverence, Haida artist Robert Davidson establishes a foundation of intrigue into this important cultural form of communication while exploring his artistic process and the meaning behind his work. This film is an excellent resource for introducing Indigenous studies in Art, Anthropology, and Sociology courses, as well as for students of any age. I highly recommend it." Seth Thomas Sutton (Odawa), Professor and Chair, Arts & Humanities, Montcalm Community College, Author, The Deconstruction of Chief Blackhawk
Citation
Main credits
Wilkinson, Charles (film director)
Schliessler, Tina (film director)
Davidson, Robert (film producer)
Davidson, Robert (on-screen participant)
Williams-Davidson, Terri-Lynn (film producer)
Davidson, Sara Florence (film producer)
Distributor subjects
No distributor subjects provided.Keywords
"Robert Davidson",Haida,"Haida Gwaii",Canada,"First Nations","totem pole",carving,woodcarving,indigenous,art,artists,"North Coast","Haida Nation",symbolism,mythology,"indigenous culture",; "Gyaangee"; Bullfrog Films; "Cultural Anthropology"; "Canadian Studies"; "Visual Artists"; "The Politics of Art"; Painting; Sculpture; "Indigenous Studies"; "Indigenous Spirituality"; "Indigenous Religion"; "Sociology of Art"; Canada;
[00:00:01.09]
[carving axe pounding]
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- The totem pole is pre-contact.
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The archeologists have
found evidence of the art
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going back thousands of years.
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For the Haida,
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the totem pole could display crests
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for on a memorial pole.
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On the very top, there
could be a hole carved out
[00:01:05.05]
and that would be where the chief
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or someone very important
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in the clan, his body
would be stored there.
[00:01:20.07]
Every totem pole would display
a story through the imagery.
[00:01:31.01]
The first totem pole I carved was in 1969.
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It was inspired by the elders,
my interaction with them,
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also because there was no
art left in the village.
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There was an emptiness.
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And so I offered to carve a totem pole.
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It took me a long time to realize
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the totem pole was actually a
catalyst to make a statement
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that hey, we're alive and we
want to be part of this world.
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[truck beeping]
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[Robert] That's right,
you're doing good. Okay.
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Straight ahead.
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This totem pole was a commission
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through Doug Reynolds Gallery,
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and the only criteria the client made was,
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"Do something that you've
always wanted to do."
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And so I chose to expand on the idea
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of beyond being silenced-
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because we were once silenced,
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our stories have been ignored,
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our history has been ignored,
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but today we are empowered
to this new reality
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of beyond being silenced.
[00:03:04.05]
I did a sketch.
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The client approved the idea.
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After the sketch is approved,
then I searched for the tree,
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but in 1986
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I was commissioned by
PepsiCo Sculpture Garden.
[00:03:24.09]
And I found a log right
away for that project,
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but there were two trees
there at the same time.
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The logs were from Haida Gwaii.
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So I bought them both.
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And so that second log sat here
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for about 25 years.
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To start the project,
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I carve a maquette,
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and it's usually in
proportion to the tree.
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In this case, I think it was eight to one,
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like the maquette is eight
times smaller than the log.
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When I do a maquette for the project,
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I leave a lot of right angles
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so it's easier to measure and
scale up from those points.
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- 107.
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- The touching part of
the project was my son Ben
[00:04:23.04]
offered to come down to rough
out the totem pole for me.
[00:04:27.06]
I was very excited about it.
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So him and his son came down, Jasper,
[00:04:34.03]
and he spent about three weeks
roughing out the totem pole
[00:04:38.03]
with the power saw.
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- I'll give you this.
[00:04:41.01]
- He was a real major
support on this project
[00:04:45.05]
and many other projects
I've done over the years.
[00:04:48.05]
[chainsaw rumbling]
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[soft piano music]
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[chainsaw buzzing]
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[chainsaw buzzing]
[00:05:09.05]
[woman singing in Native language]
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[music continues]
[00:05:36.07]
[music continues]
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I had a lot of help on the project.
[00:05:54.04]
Tyson Brown, he was here for
pretty well the whole project,
[00:06:00.01]
and a young lad from Bella Coola,
[00:06:03.08]
Ses Saunders, and TJ Young--
[00:06:08.04]
like, very accomplished carvers.
[00:06:11.03]
I never intended to complete the maquette
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because it was made in red cedar,
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but I was commissioned by dear friends.
[00:06:20.05]
The husband commissioned
it for his wife's birthday.
[00:06:24.02]
Normally, something on that scale
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is carved in yellow cedar.
[00:06:29.01]
You can do a finer finish.
[00:06:31.04]
So to carve on that scale
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in a very soft wood
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takes extra care, the tools
have to be razor-sharp.
[00:06:41.00]
And if it's not razor-sharp,
then it leaves a rough edge
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on the maquette.
[00:06:48.00]
I'm addicted to tool finishing.
[00:06:51.00]
There's no sandpaper on that, no.
[00:06:56.03]
For the "Beyond Being
Silenced" totem pole,
[00:06:59.08]
the client has an affinity to frogs.
[00:07:04.07]
So I included a frog
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in between the ears of the
upside-down grizzly bear here.
[00:07:12.07]
The grizzly bear is symbolic
of the colonial people.
[00:07:17.04]
So the grizzly bear faces upside-down,
[00:07:21.08]
tongue-to-tongue with the eagle.
[00:07:25.02]
Early argillite carvings,
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there was always a
tongue-to-tongue between raven,
[00:07:33.05]
human, eagle, human,
killer whale, and so on.
[00:07:38.06]
And I've always been intrigued by that.
[00:07:41.04]
And there are several series,
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and mine is-- it's a transfer of power.
[00:07:49.01]
I chose eagle because eagle is my crest,
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and I think of eagle as a power symbol.
[00:07:57.03]
So the eagle is taking
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the power from the grizzly,
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like I feel the Western idea
[00:08:08.06]
was to totally ignore who we were
[00:08:12.06]
and not give us any credit for the help
[00:08:15.07]
that the colonists received
from First Nations.
[00:08:20.04]
Our stories have been ignored,
[00:08:23.01]
but the truth is coming out
that our stories were true,
[00:08:29.01]
then was denied by the
Canadian government.
[00:08:32.03]
The unmarked graves that
are being unearthed,
[00:08:36.08]
you know, they talk about
it being discovered,
[00:08:39.05]
but we knew about it.
[00:08:41.01]
It's not a discovery.
[00:08:42.03]
It's more of a--
[00:08:44.04]
finally, there's evidence
to back our stories,
[00:08:48.03]
the stories of those who
went to residential school
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and experienced that.
[00:08:54.08]
And we can't
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turn our backs on that evidence anymore.
[00:09:03.07]
When you look at the two
faces underneath the tongue,
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male and female, they're
both sharing the same mouth.
[00:09:11.03]
And to me, that is how
we're coming together
[00:09:16.01]
and we're sharing each other's
knowledge of our history.
[00:09:20.04]
And it's through sharing that's
giving us a lot more power,
[00:09:25.03]
so that we are empowered
on this new reality
[00:09:29.01]
of beyond being silenced.
[00:09:32.05]
Further up is the wing of this eagle.
[00:09:37.02]
The lines here are actually feathers.
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[chisel scraping]
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And on the breast of
this eagle is the frog.
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I like to think of the
frog as spirit helper,
[00:10:07.00]
my spirit helper.
[00:10:08.05]
Over the years,
[00:10:09.07]
the frog has been there
during difficult times.
[00:10:13.05]
And when the frog was there,
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then I realized everything will be okay.
[00:10:19.05]
Further up,
[00:10:21.05]
the eagle is the traveling
companion of its brother.
[00:10:25.08]
And on the very top
are the three watchmen.
[00:10:31.00]
And when Ben, my son, was carving,
[00:10:34.04]
I gave him carte blanche on the faces.
[00:10:37.03]
One of his whimsical faces are the smiling
[00:10:41.01]
with the eyes curled.
[00:10:43.09]
And he had it drawn on there,
[00:10:45.05]
but I said, "Oh, that's great,"
[00:10:47.07]
but he didn't follow through on that.
[00:10:50.07]
He did it more of with the eyes open.
[00:10:53.02]
And on the maquette, I honored him
[00:10:56.03]
by having one of the
watchmen with his face on.
[00:11:03.02]
From start to finish, the totem pole,
[00:11:07.00]
it took about a year and four months.
[00:11:09.08]
[dog whimpering]
[00:11:14.04]
People like Ben, my son, and
Bill Reid were watching over me
[00:11:19.02]
and people from the past.
[00:11:27.00]
And my daughter, Sara, she
offered to paint the pole.
[00:11:31.00]
So there's Ben, he started the project,
[00:11:34.04]
and there's Sara who completed the project
[00:11:37.09]
along with Terri-Lynn and Phil Gray.
[00:11:44.05]
[brush swishing]
[00:11:45.07]
[drum thumping]
[00:11:49.09]
[man singing in Native language]
[00:12:05.08]
[singing continues]
[00:12:21.03]
[power drill buzzing]
[00:12:43.03]
I remember in the mid-1980s
talking to my bank manager
[00:12:48.06]
about the experience my dad went through,
[00:12:53.04]
and she couldn't believe it.
[00:12:55.07]
She couldn't believe the history
of the residential school.
[00:13:01.03]
In fact, she didn't even
want to acknowledge it.
[00:13:06.05]
And I certainly would like to
talk with her now. [laughs]
[00:13:16.01]
I think we need to do more work
[00:13:19.04]
educating ourselves of our history.
[00:13:22.03]
And when we come together,
[00:13:24.02]
we all have little threads of the past.
[00:13:28.00]
And it's exciting
[00:13:31.05]
to share that knowledge.
[00:13:41.00]
[gentle guitar music]
[00:13:43.05]
[woman singing in Native language]
