Figure

Item number A7235 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Data
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Description

Stone carving of a woman sitting on the back of a large fish, in front of the dorsal fin. Carved from mottled white-grey stone.

Iconographic Meaning

Sculpture depiction of a nude woman riding on the back of a killer whale. This may allude to one of several different clan-owned stories from the Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Haida oral histories. The stories share a theme of a woman being kidnapped by the Killer Whale Chief and later rescued by her husband.

Narrative

The killer whale sculpture appears to be the work of Tsimshian artist Samuel Elwitt. Another possibility is that this work was carved by Elwitt in wood, and then copied by marble-working grave sculptors in Victoria, as was sometimes done for grave markers of high-ranking individuals. The four fins depicted on the bottom sides of the whale are consistent with Elwitt’s carving style and appear on all of his known depictions of killer whales, something that appears to be unique to his work. The piece was recorded by the donor as having been collected at Skeena Crossing, but no other provenance is known.