Renowned Haida artist and Semiahmoo Peninsula resident Robert Davidson was featured last week in a different light – as musician and dancer.
Davidson performed with the Rainbow Creek Dancers as part of the Coastal First Nations Dance Festival, which ran until Sunday at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.
Presented by the Dancers of Damelahamid in partnership with the MOA, the festival showcased both international and B.C.-based groups, including first time participants sisters Urseloria Kanuho and Nikollane Kanuho, of the Arizona Pow Wow Dancers and Calgary hoop dancer Jesse McMann Sparvier, whose work is rooted in Blackfoot and Cree traditions.
Of both Haida and Tlingit descent, Davidson, a Governor General’s award-winner, is one of Canada’s most respected and important contemporary post-modern visual artists, known for his creative and personal interpretation of Haida forms through his skill as a sculptor, as a master-carver of totem poles and masks, and also as a printmaker, painter and jeweller.
The Rainbow Creek Dancers, founded in 1980 by Davidson and his brother, Reg, a carver and printmaker, are dedicated to keeping alive the songs and dancers of their Haida ancestors – not simply as a cultural artifact but as a way to expose new generations to Haida culture and deliver messages concerning First Nations issues, including the recognition of sacred spaces and sanctified First Nations hunting customs.
In a 2013 interview, Davidson told Peace Arch News that while the group’s songs and dances are built on pieces taught to himself and his brother by their grandmother, Florence Edenshaw Davidson, they also find it exciting to create new pieces within the traditions.
“It’s almost as if we’ve tapped into a cosmic memory,” he said, noting that the biggest compliment to their work is to hear elders say, as one did after the debut of a new Salmon Dance in Massett in 1989, “I haven’t seen that done in a long time.”
This year’s festival – which included an artist talk with award-winning Haida musician Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson, co-founder of the Haida Gwai Singers Society – was particularly focused on the need to preserve and cherish the distinct and long-standing traditions of aboriginal groups, nurturing future generations by revisiting cultural stories, songs and dances.
For more information, visit damelahamid.ca
