Ceremonial Interior House Screen
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Tsimshian; Kitwankool (Skeena River), British
Columbia. Painted wooden screens were used to separate a chief's compartment in a communal house or as a backdrop during ceremonial occasions. These wall partitions could be assembled in front of the chief's compartment to conceal dancers as they put on their costumes and prepared to perform. Ancestral or crest figures were painted on screens. In the case of this screen, the dragonfly is a decorative motif, not a crest, while the two men are crests of the clan Wudaxhayetes. Under the beak (which was added the last time the screen was used, c.1850) swansdown with red cedar bark was suspended. |
