Haida raven transformer mask, carved by Charles Edenshaw in about 1880 - a valued part of the BC West Coast Native collection in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford
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| human face seen when raven's head is open |
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| raven's head seen from the outside |
Not great photos, but when Doco and I were in the National Gallery in Ottawa last Easter we saw a photo of this mask, alongside a recent copy by Haida carver Robert Davidson. The copy lacked the wistful expression of the Edenshaw mask, and we were keen to see the original when here. It happened that my cousin Fiona arranged for the Canadian curator of the Americas aboriginal collection, Laura Peers, to meet us and talk to us about the mask and the interactions between the Pitt Rivers Museum and the present-day Haida. Lots to think about.
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