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Sold-out Kwakwaka’wakw Fashion Show wows
By Kathy O'Reilly, North Island Eagle, April 19 2024
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In an event that would fit easily into New York or Paris Fashion Weeks, the sold-out Kwakwak’wakw Fashion Show wowed the crowd of 200 people.
The show, organised by Aurellia Nelson, hamalakane’ga Kwakwani, was hosted April 12 at the Kwa’lilas Hotel in Port Hardy. The event showcased the clothing of four Indigenous designers.
Aurellia presented her Premium Culture Club line that she established in 2021 during the pandemic to honour her passion for art and design.
Blunden Harbour Treasures’ models wore Tina Henderson’s clothing down the runway. Each piece featured the artwork of Johnny Henderson.
Corrine Hunt’s upbeat choice of music had the crowd tapping their toes. Corrine is a master carver and jewellery designer who co-designed the 2010 Winter Olympic medal featuring orca and raven – her crest animals.
Rounding out the evening was Rebecca Baker-Grenier a multi-disciplinary artist who debuted her first complete collection at New York Fashion Week in 2022. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Elle Canada, and worn on red carpets.
Baker-Grenier’s grandfather was legendary Kwakiutl artist and hereditary chief Tony Hunt Sr.
“The Kwakwaka’wakw Fashion Show was a celebration of the late Great Grandma Sarah’s 75th birthday and the celebration of Indigenous culture. The event was filled with excitement, support, and a sense of upliftment for attendees,” said Aurellia.
“The organizers had to overcome a significant artist block due to grief, stress, and unmotivation, but the models brought their imagination to life,” she said.
The planning process was challenging, but the support from local newspapers, CBC Radio, and the sale of 200 tickets was heartwarming.
“The organizers had a strong team of family members, including Jeanbell, who did most of the publishing for vendors and artists, and Leanne, who helped with the design and ordering of materials.”
The event was a start for the organizer’s legacy and healing of their inner child. The organizers were supported by their community, including Grandpa Calvin and Glamma Jen, who brought 28 elders from her tribe, Tsleil-Waututh people from North Vancouver.
“The event was filled with excitement, smiles, and connections, and the feeling of unity was unforgettable,” Aurellia said.
“I’ll never forget at the end when Uncle Richard George stood up and started clapping. Then everyone stood up. The feeling it gave me, unforgettable!”
The wildly successful evening also featured the work of vendors.
“ha̱lakas’la ‘til next year - bigger and better!”
Photo — By Kathy O'Reilly
Port Hardy council has agreed to set aside a piece of land, on the right-hand side of the highway just before Applewood GM, for a culturally supportive housing project.
Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw big house becoming a reality
By Kathy O’Reilly, North Island Eagle, April 19 2024
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After 60 plus years, the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations are close to opening their Gukwdzi (big house).
The progress of the structure was the subject of a presentation at the Port Hardy Rotary Club luncheon March 28 given by Big House Society members. The society, formed in 2014, is the governing body coordinated by Walter George who attended the luncheon.
“The big house is the seat of their government where decision making, titles, songs and names are given,” said Big House Society member Colleen Hemphill.
“Our communities have made several efforts to build a big house in the past and, unfortunately, some of those efforts didn’t come through, but about 14 or 15 years ago we started to get together and have regular meetings and talk about the reality of a big house,” Hemphill said.
The people that attended those meetings were the matriarchs, hereditary chiefs, elders and interested community members who gathered to “formulate the vision that we had for the future of our big house,” Hemphill said.
“What you see down there is a bit bigger, in terms of what traditional big houses would have looked like in our communities, by about 75 per cent.”
Traditionally Gwa’sala and ‘Nakwaxda’xw people had several big houses in their communities.
“For example, across the way in Blunden Harbour (Ba’as), there were 10 big houses - one for each tribe/family, each clan,” she said.
“For the longest time our people have been kind of lost because we haven’t had a real big house in our community since the relocation (in 1964).”
A big house was promised by the Canadian government, but “it was one of those many, many promises that didn’t come through”.
The big house is a project that many people brought to fruition through a common vision and common goal.
“For our community it was a sad thing that they haven’t had their own big house for all these years,” said Hemphill.
“One of our chiefs, who had been in the seat of chief for 45 years, often referred to the big house as our Parliament, our place of governance, our place where we made decisions, where we planned, where we executed our plans, where our people gathered, where ceremonies took place. It was an all-encompassing place and that was missing from the lives of the ‘Tsulquate for all these years since the relocation.”
The vision has changed since talks began.
“As time went on people would say ‘well we’re older now, we’re different people so we have to have a little bit more technologically enhanced place when our big house is built’,” she said.
“When we talked about the architecture of our building, about three years back, many different people had insight and input into what the building will look like, what it will be named, what designs that will go onto it and the building that you are going to see is really the culmination of so many people’s ideas and thoughts and advice,” she said.
“It’s going to be a monumental structure when it is finished. It already is in its framework, almost roofed stage. Once you got those carved poles in there it was very clear what the purpose of the building was going to be,” Hemphill said.
“We often talk about how when we go into our big house, we’re walking right straight into our own history, our own individual histories. So, the people of the community can go in there and they’ll see the different figures on the poles and that speaks to who they are, where they come from, and what the history is and that’s another element of the big house that is extremely important,” she explained.
For youth that means a greater sense of self-esteem.
“We’ve got a lot of hopes for it,” she said.
One of the biggest decisions that had to be made was where to build the big house.
“Wherever it was going to be, the front door had to face the east, it had to face the morning sunrise. We had three or four different sites picked out and then we finally got this site.”
The building at the end of the day will be able to hold close to 1,200 people.
“It’s been tricky making an absolute determination on a (opening) date because as you know on the North Island here the supply system and everything else makes it very difficult to have any certainty to anything,” Hemphill said.
“We really are looking forward to our opening day and there is a lot of work that needs to continue to happen,” she said.
“When we hired the carvers for the original posts in 2018, they had to agree that they were going to take on four apprentices from our community because up to that point, we had carving going on on a smaller scale, and arts and song, we had our culture starting to come alive in more ways than one and Walter had a lot to do with that,” Hemphill explained.
“And, so, when our master carvers came, they agreed, and Walter was able to one of the apprentices. I’m so, so proud of Walter because not only is he an incredible role model in so many ways, in singing .and with the young, he’s also been a strength in upholding the work and the process of the big house opening so that we’re on track, where we need to be.”
“The opening is going to be wide open. We’ve already extended invitations to neighbouring communities up north and down south,” said George, and representatives from Ottawa.
“We had a tentative date set for July, but we’ve decided to move it up to October just to give us a few extra months to prepare,” George said.
The big house’s modern features include a gigame room upstairs for the chiefs in particular, and matriarchs, to host meetings, a mothers’ room with a big screen television, and a first aid station.
“It’s even going to have a little tiny elevator.”
One of the challenges has been to make sure the big house reflects the two nations who were very distinct and separate from each other.
“So, we need to have that balance in everything that we do with the big house.”
Photo — Submitted
After 60 plus years, the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations are close to opening their Gukwdzi (big house)