ABSTRACT
Arriving and departing travelers at Vancouver International Airport are greeted by a huge bronze sculpture of a boatload of strange, mythical creatures. This 20 feet long, eleven feet wide and 12 feet high masterpiece, The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, is by the late Bill Reid, a member of the Haida Gwaii First Nations band from the Pacific Northwest. The canoe has thirteen passengers, spirits or myth creatures from Haida mythology. The bear mother, who is part human, and the bear father sit facing each other at the bow with their two cubs between them. The beaver is paddling menacingly amidships, and behind him is the mysterious intercultural dogfish woman. Shy mouse woman is tucked in the stern. A ferociously playful wolf sinks his fangs into the eagle’s wing, and the eagle is attacking the bear’s paw. A frog – who symbolizes the ability to cross boundaries between worlds – is partially in, partially out of the canoe. An ancient reluctant conscript paddles stoically. In the center, holding a speaker’s staff in his right hand, stands the chief, whose identity – according to the sculptor – is deliberately uncertain. The legendary raven – master of tricks, transformations and multiple identities – steers the motley crew. The Spirit of Haida Gwaii is a symbol of the ‘strange multiplicity’, the astonishing cultural diversity that characterizes 21st century cities and regions.
