TITLE: Heiltsuk (?) Spirit Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: North America
COUNTRY: Canada
SUBREGION: British Columbia
ETHNICITY: Heiltsuk (Bella Bella)
DESCRIPTION: Spirit Mask (?)
CATALOG ID: NACA010
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Shamanic
FUNCTION: healing; protection/purification; spirit invocation
AGE: ca. 1870-1900
MAIN MATERIAL: cedar wood
OTHER MATERIALS: mineral-based paints
The Heiltsuk people (sometimes called Bella Bella) live in the central coast of Canada’s British Columbia province, albeit they inhabited that region thousands of years before British colonization. Their religious beliefs rely upon shamans to cure diseases, influence the weather, assist in hunting, protect the people against witchcraft, and commune with spirits to foresee the future. This mask would probably have been worn by a shaman and may represent a spirit. It would most probably have been worn in a healing ceremony or for the purpose of embodying the spirit to fight malevolent magic or otherwise invoke spiritual power.
For more on masks of the coastal peoples of western Canada, see Peter MacNair, Robert Joseph & Bruce Grenville, Down from the Shimmering Sky: Masks of the Northwest Coast (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 1998) and Edward Malin, A World of Faces: Masks of the Northwest Coast Indians (Portland: Timber Press, 1978).
