SEPTEMBER 2011

Alert Bay II:  Orcas and Earthquakes

The Power of Gift Giving was a collaborative exhibition between the Staatliche Kunsthalle (State Gallery) in Dresden, Germany and the U’Mista Cultural Centre, a  Kwakwaka'Wakw First Nations museum in Alert Bay, B.C.


The exhibition was a very detail-oriented, courier-escorted exchange of extraordinary artifacts from two completely different societies who collaborated to bring their respective collections to each other’s communities.



September brought a close to this incredible exhibition exchange. Denbigh FAS handled the replacement and shipping of the artifacts of the German aristocracy as well as the transport, unpacking and reinstallation of all the precious First Nations regalia.

Five members of the Denbigh staff were fortunate to work with both museums to facilitate the cultural exchange and to witness first-hand the “Power of Gift Giving”. The Denbigh team worked side by side with the staff from the Umista Cultural Centre as well as the art handlers and curators from the Dresden Museum. For all of the techs, it was a unique experience to work on such a personal level with the museum staff with these extraordinary artifacts and in such a remote community. After working on the project for a month, each took away a different perspective and sense of enlightenment. Following are comments made by the staff.



Our trip to Alert Bay with Denbigh's fine art installation team was of deep significance for me personally, the fulfillment of a lifetime of keen interests and creative intentions in the region. To be given opportunity to handle the repatriated potlatch collection in the shadow of the decaying residential school was a powerful and humbling experience. To bear witness to an eye-to-eye conversations between 'Namgis and Germanic cultures filled me with hope that our long-agonizing, patronizing white colonial experiment  may finally be coming to an era of mutual respect, awareness, and  admiration betwixt all our multivariously sophisticated great and ancient civilizations.
- Steve Calvert

The Denbigh crew arrived at the old middle school on Chestnut Rd in Alert Bay to pick up a large Charlie James totem pole. A sizable group had gathered: local Kwakwaka'wakw carvers, U'mista staff and other members of the community to help move the Charlie James pole. Raising the pole was a great moment and really showed the spirit of the community. I would encourage anyone interested in  First Nations artwork and culture to visit the U'mista Cultura Society.
-  Warren McLachlan

I feel really privileged to have had the chance to go on all four trips to Alert Bay. The best part was seeing the art of the Kwakwaka'wakw people, but all the more so since we were on the island where the work was created. An analogy would be going to Venice to see the paintings of Titian in the very church they were created for centuries ago. It was incredible to meet the carvers that are carrying on this living culture, and I was touched by their struggle to negotiate a place for their stories and art in late capitalist western society. The trip wasn't without a few surprises. Our second departure from Alert Bay was on the morning that the Earthquake hit in Japan - and we were under a tsunami alert. On the third trip we were all sitting on a pier eating lunch when everything started to shake - a magnitude 6.3 earthquake had just hit the other side of Vancouver Island. All survived.
- Adam Brickell

My visit to Alert Bay with Denbigh was colored by a variety of intriguing and touching experiences. While I had always understood the importance of masks and totem poles within Pacific Northwest coast culture, my personal experience with those forms of art had been limited. That all changed when I had the opportunity to experience the work in the place where it is made. Many of the carvers work in studios close to the U'Mista Museum. It was amazing to see these indigenous works contrasted against the German antiquities that were being prepared for their journey back to Dresden.
- Mitch Speed