Aboriginal Artwork’s Long Journey Home
Submitted by Steve on September 6, 2011
From Kevin Griffin at The Vancouver Sun:
One of the artworks in the Vancouver Art Gallery‘s Surrealism exhibition illustrates an ongoing story among many aboriginal groups in B.C. about reclaiming physical objects and artefacts from their past.
The artwork is the impressive frontlet in the first exhibition room. It was worn on the top of the head with the downy-material covering the sides and back of the neck.
Owned by Sam Scow, it was one of more than 100 masks, rattles and other ceremonial objects seized in a historic 1921 raid on a Kwakwaka’wakw potlatch. Instead of being returned to their owners, the objects were sold and ended up in collections around the world.