ABSTRACT
Masks, or false faces, have a long history and numerous implications as they pertain to morality and sociology as well as expression of personas, aspects, or facades of self. Shamanic masks have several purposes, to buffer against hostile spirits, to transform or evoke the assistance of beneficial spirits, to channel the shamans focus, and to create distance between the shaman and the audience. The function of masks are containment of existing traumatic sequelae, mediation between the existing ego stance and the trauma effects, and mediation between individual experience and the collective. When creating masks, the structure of the mask holds and contains painful affect; masks have the ability to express the fragmented, aggressive, and hostile residual effects of traumas. The hidden objects in the masks are like secrets, sometimes alive secrets, like seeds, buried there waiting for the right time to germinate like ideas and experiences, they need the right time to come forth, said Heather about her mask work.
