“Killer whales always stick together”
04.10.2018“Killer whales always stick together”
Masks play an important role in the art of Corinne Hunt, a Canadian artist. On her visit to the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum), she looked at various objects – including a mask shaped like a killer whale that came from her great-grandmother’s family.
Hunt would like her nephew, a professional mask maker, to help her make a replica of the mask. So, she came to the museum to measure the mask. She talked to us about what connects her to the mask and what the killer whale symbolizes.
Corinne Hunt and the Killer Whale Mask
Corinne Hunt, a Canadian artist, visited the Ethnologisches Museum in order to appraise a mask that came from her great-grandmother’s family. She would like her nephew to help her make a replica of the mask. In the video, Hunt tells us what connects her to the mask and how she plans to proceed.
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Transcript
The mask is from my great-grandmother's familiy, so our family. It was used in our ceremonies and it's the first time I've seen a mask like this. So it's very exciting to see something so different and imagine how it was used in a potlatch a century ago and to have a feeling of how different things were made as well. You know, these are different designs and it's quite beautiful to be a part of this, to see it.
My nephew and I, who is a mask carver, we are going to replicate this mask. And today I came to measure to see how the different parts work. You know, to get a sense of how we should reconstruct it. And when we do that we will dance it again in a ceremony. It's very complicated, there are many pieces to this mask It's going to be exciting to put together one more time.
This is a killer whale mask which is a very big part of our mythology. My name is Gelatleg'lees in my language and it's the killer whale who is rubbing her back on the beach. The meaning has something powerful to do with families because the killer whales stay together with their families. So I think this mask would be used and the dance would be going in and out of the water and fins would come up as it goes and dives into the water.
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