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Gidansda Guujaaw | |
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7th President of the Haida Nation | |
In office January 20, 1999 –November 16, 2012 | |
Vice President | Harold Yeltatzie |
Preceded by | Ron Brown Jr |
Succeeded by | Kil tlaats 'gaa (Peter Lantin) |
In office January 20,1999 –January 20,2003 | |
Vice President | Arnie Bellis |
In office January 20,2004 –January 20,2010 | |
Vice President | Xiihliikingang (April Churchill) |
In office January 20,2011 –January 20,2012 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Gidansda Giindajin Haawasti Guujaaw January 1,1953 Massett,Haida Gwaii |
Relations | Gwaai Edenshaw (son) |
Residence(s) | Skidegate,Haida Gwaii |
Gidansda Giindajin Haawasti Guujaaw, also known as Gary Edenshaw,is a singer,wood carver,traditional medicine practitioner,political activist and leader. He of Gakyaals Kiiqawaay,a Haida family of the Raven moiety. He has currently inherited the name Gidansda from his potlatch in 2017,the title of Gakyaals Kiiqawaay hereditary leader. The family's alternate name,"Skedans",is an anglicized mispronunciation of the family's hereditary leader's title. [1] [2]
Guujaaw is a Haida matrilineally descended from Gakyaals Kiiqawaay,a family of the Raven moiety from the village of Skedans (Ḵ'uuna). He was born in Masset,named G̱aaw in Haida,on the northern part of Haida Gwaii. His father,Chiits Gitnaii,is matrilineally descended from the Eagle moiety from the Yakoun River.
Guujaaw means drum,a name formally given him at a potlatch at Kiusta.
Guujaaw began going out onto the land at a young age,digging cockles,picking seaweed with his mother,hunting and fishing with his father and trapping with his uncle. In his infancy he spent summers with his great-grandmother who lived to be 114 years old. She was a singer who taped over 100 songs and became the greatest influence on his life.
Elders also played an important role in Guujaaw's growth and understanding of the world. It was through this engagement with their wisdom and the old ways that Guujaaw undertook journeys around the Islands by row-boat and canoes,often alone. He knows the ways of the Islands as well as anyone.
Guujaaw has worked with the Council of the Haida Nation for the past twenty years to secure the protection of some areas of the Islands as well as pushing for more care and sustainable use of Island resources. He was in the forefront of the fight for the protection of Gwaii Haanas (South Moresby) and took part in the blockades of logging operations at Lyell Island in the mid-1980s. He was a member of the Archipelago Management Board which co-manages,with the Government of Canada,Gwaii Haanas.
He has been involved in developing the policies and strategies of the Council of the Haida Nation,and has served as the negotiator for the Council of the Haida Nation and worked to develop guidelines and policies towards the protection of living Haida archaeological sites (culturally modified trees). He has held the official position of 'Firekeeper' for the Hereditary Chiefs of Haida Gwaii.
Guujaaw has been a regular contributor to Haida Laas — the official publication of the Council of the Haida Nation. He is a dedicated teacher working to pass songs and dances on to the next generation within the broader context of Haida culture. His love for the land and understanding of the vulnerability of life has put him in the position of devoting much of his adulthood to fighting the forces that are changing the land.
All the we say is ours is of Haida Gwaii. This is our lot, our heritage, our life ... and one of the world's great cultures.
Today Guujaaw continues to balance carving with his many other roles which include; political activist, teacher, medicinal practitioner, historian, and performer.
His son Gwaai Edenshaw is an artist and film director, most noted as co-director of the first-ever Haida-language feature-length film Edge of the Knife (SG̲aawaay Ḵʹuuna). [3]
William Ronald Reid Jr. was a Haida artist whose works include jewelry, sculpture, screen-printing, and paintings. Producing over one thousand original works during his fifty-year career, Reid is regarded as one of the most significant Northwest Coast artists of the late twentieth century.
The Haida are an Indigenous group who have traditionally occupied Haida Gwaii, an archipelago just off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for at least 12,500 years.
Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago located between 55–125 km (34–78 mi) off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hecate Strait. Queen Charlotte Sound lies to the south, with Vancouver Island beyond. To the north, the disputed Dixon Entrance separates Haida Gwaii from the Alexander Archipelago in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Skidegate is a Haida community in Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, Canada. It is on the southeast coast of Graham Island, the largest island in the archipelago, and is approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) west of mainland British Columbia across Hecate Strait.
Lyell Island, known also in the Haida language as Athlii Gwaii, is a large island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the east side of Moresby Island, just south of Laskeek Bay. The island is a part of the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.
Florence Edenshaw Davidson (1896–1993) was a Canadian First Nations artist from Haida Gwaii. She created basketry and button-blankets and was a respected elder in her village of Masset, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia.
Charles Edenshaw was a Haida artist from Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. He is known for his woodcarving, argillite carving, jewellery, and painting. His style was known for its originality and innovative narrative forms, created while adhering to the principles of formline art characteristic of Haida art. In 1902, the ethnographer and collector Charles F. Newcombe called Edenshaw “the best carver in wood and stone now living.”
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a visual artist, author, and public speaker. His work has been seen in public spaces, museums, galleries and private collections across globe. Institutional collections include the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Humboldt Forum.
Ḵung is a Haida village, located on the west side of Alexandra Narrows on Graham Island, the largest and northernmost island of Haida Gwaii alongside British Columbia, Canada. Alexandra Narrows, known on some old maps as Mazzaredo Sound, connects Naden Harbour and Virago Sound. An earlier village located at the current village site was named ‘Nightasis’ by the fur trader John Work, and records that in 1840 there were 15 houses with 280 residents.
Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area Reserve and Haida Heritage Site is a National Marine Conservation Area of Canada. It is located off the coast of the southernmost Haida Gwaii, 130 kilometres off the mainland of British Columbia. It is immediately adjacent to Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. The level of protection differs from that of the National Park Reserve, however, allowing sustainable use of some natural resources in the area. Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area Reserve, which covers 3,400 square kilometres, is "a primary feeding habitat" of the humpback whale protected by Canada's Species at Risk Act (SARA).
The Haida Heritage Centre is the premier cultural centre and museum of the Haida people. It is located in Skidegate, a community on Graham Island in Haida Gwaii off the Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada. The centre is situated just south of the site of a historical village in Kay Llnagaay. The Centre was built and is managed by Gwaalagaa Naay, an economic development branch of the Skidegate Band Council, the owners of the site. It is one of the major aboriginal cultural tourism attractions in Haida Gwaii and has been described as "a place for the Haida voice to be heard." Educational programs are offered in partnership with School District 50 Haida Gwaii, the University of Northern British Columbia, and with the Haida Gwaii Higher Education Society.
James Hart is a Canadian and Haida artist and a chief of the Haida Nation.
Hlk'yah G̱awG̱a, also known as Windy Bay, is located on Athlii Gwaii in southern Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. The site was historically the location of a Haida village named Hlk'yah Llnagaay, meaning Peregrine Falcon Town in English. In the 1980s, Hlk'yah G̱awG̱a was the focus of a series of lawsuits and protests opposing clearcut logging on the island. These demonstrations were the impetus for the signing of the Gwaii Haanas Agreement of 1993 and the creation of the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, National Marine Conservation Area Reserve, and Haida Heritage Site.
Dadens (daa.adans), also referred to as Tartenee and Tatense by some early European settlers and Tatense Reserve 16 under the Indian Act is village on the southern coast of Langara Island belonging to the Haida Nation on the archipelago Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada. Dadens was once a popular trading post for the North Pacific fur trade among European traders in the late 18th century, due to its size and accessibility. Dadens no longer continues to be used by families year round, but it was used as a fishing village during the summer months by many Haida up until the 1950s and 1960s, and is still used to a limited extent today. There have been multiple migrations of families from Dadens to South East Alaska and these people are now known as the Kiagani Haida.
Tanu is a traditional Haida village site located on Tanu Island, Haida Gwaii, opposite of Kung'a Island in Laskeek Bay, within the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.
Kiusta located on Haida Gwaii is the oldest Northern Haida village: and the site of first recorded contact between the Haida and Europeans in 1774. Haida lived in this village for thousands of years, due to the sheltered nature of its location it was used for boats offloading, especially in rough waters. Kiusta is one of the oldest archeological sites of human use in British Columbia, and continues to be a site for cultural revitalisation.
Gwaai Edenshaw is a Haida artist and filmmaker from Canada. Along with Helen Haig-Brown, he co-directed Edge of the Knife, the first Haida language feature film.
Tyler York is a Haida woodcarver and actor from Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada. He is most noted for his performance in the Haida-language film Edge of the Knife, for which he won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for Best Actor in a Canadian Film at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2018.
Kung Jaadee is a traditional Haida storyteller, singer, drummer, teacher, and children's book author from the village of Old Massett, Haida Gwaii in Northern British Columbia, Canada.
Lisa Hageman Yahgulanaas is a Haida weaver. She is from Haida Gwaii and is based in Masset. She has won multiple awards in British Columbia.