‘My hands were being guided’: Exhibition invites viewers into the world of Haida master artist

From a carving he made as a child to a recreation of his studio desk — a celebration of Kihl ‘Yahda (Christian White) is now on display at Bill Reid Gallery

Haida master artist Christian White stands in front of a re-creation of his studio desk on Haida Gwaii, assembled by curators of an exhibition of his work at the Bill Reid Gallery in “Vancouver.” Photo by David P. Ball

Standing in front of a studio work desk cluttered with wood-carving tools, family photos, newspapers, and tide charts around his homeland Haida Gwaii, Kihl ‘Yahda (Christian White) describes the “sense of satisfaction” he gets from his artwork.

Whenever he finishes a new carving, painted box, or ceremonial mask, he often feels pride and happiness. He hopes it brings similar feelings for others in his nation.

“I imagine it could spur many emotions, really,” he tells IndigiNews in an interview. “We live in a small community where there can be a lot of grief. You know, there’s always loss in our community — but there’s also life and smiles and happiness. And we’ve got to let that win.”

The 62-year old Haida artist is the subject of a new solo exhibition at the Bill Reid Gallery in xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ territories.

The desk displayed at the gallery is a close replica of his actual Old Massett studio’s work station 800 kilometres to the northwest — where he has worked for decades with a growing cast of young apprentices — carefully assembled by the gallery’s guest curator, Sdahl Ḵ’awaas (Lucy Bell).

“This is an attempt at us recreating his desk … but oh my god, it’s 30 years of stuff,” explains Bell, a fellow member of Haida Nation. “This was really fun to assemble.”

Christian White stands below a massive mask displayed at the Bill Reid Gallery in ‘Vancouver.’ The mask is used by the Haida dance group he founded in 1996, Tluu Xaada Naay. Photo by David P. Ball

She and White are two co-founders of their nation’s repatriation committee, working for three decades to bring their ancestors’ remains and belongings home from museums and institutions worldwide.

So far, they’ve brought more than 500 ancestors home to Haida Gwaii. Bell previously led the First Nations Department and Repatriation Program at the Royal B.C. Museum.

The pair have also studied the Haida language together; their families have raised children together. 

So creating the gallery exhibition seemed like a natural next step, Bell recalls.

“I’ve been alongside Christian for a lot of the things that we do,” she says.

“This exhibit has taken us under a year, I think, to pull together. But really it’s 50 years of Christian’s beautiful work in the community.”

In 1974, at age 12, Haida artist Christian White sculpted this hand-sized seal from a whale bone given to him by his father, Morris White, a late Hereditary Chief of the Edinsu Eagle Clan of Kiusta. Within two years, he’d become a full-time artist. Photo by David P. Ball

‘I’ve been carving since a very young age’

White’s show serves as both a retrospective of his life’s work, and also a glimpse of the many art forms he’s mastered over decades. 

“My name means ‘True Voice,’” White announces as he begins a private tour of his exhibition, “and I’ve been carving since a very young age.”

It features one of White’s earliest-ever pieces: a small carving of a seal he made from a whale bone his father gave him at age 12.

“It had been all but forgotten, and my mother gave it back to me 30 or 40 years later,” he says. “It was like my hands were being guided while I was carving.”

A year later, he’d go on to carve a miniature totem pole, his first sculpture using argillite — a black slate stone popular in Haida sculpture — as instructed by his father Morris White, late Hereditary Chief of the Edinsu Eagle Clan of Kiusta.

“When he passed on,” he recalls, “then I had to take up the responsibility of teaching the next generation.”

Within two years of his first foray into whale-bone carving, he’d become a full-time artist.

A notable example of Haida artist Christian White’s argillite sculptures is Raven Dancer, one of his most celebrated works. Photo courtesy Amelia Rea/Bill Reid Gallery

He’s kept working with argillite for decades, a continuous thread throughout his career to this day.

But on a deeper level, White’s Bill Reid Gallery exhibition also showcases many pivotal moments in his community’s broader revival and renewal of Haida culture.

“You’ll see our different movements that we’ve started through the years,” he notes.

“The revival of our arts and culture, our ceremonies, and our connection with the ancestors — each one of the parts of the exhibit show that — and the value we place upon our work that we have created over the years.”

‘Challenge is an opportunity’

One particularly unique element in the retrospective exhibition showcases White’s desire to explore how “challenge is an opportunity,” he says.

In a glass display case sits a large cedar bentwood box, adorned with red-and-black Haida formline shapes. 

Nearby is a faded, flattened version of the same box, revealed through a tear in the gallery’s display wall.

White’s uncle found the older box hidden inside the walls of an old Craftsman-style house that was being demolished on Haida Gwaii.

Christian White explains how he created the cedar bentwood box beside him — precisely mirroring an older box, behind him, that his uncle found hidden inside the walls of a house being torn down. Photo by David P. Ball

“The house was built there after the longhouses had been taken down,” White recalls. 

“It was encased in there for 60 or more years until the house was torn down. I wanted to tell that story.”

For Bell, the story of unearthing the hidden box — and White re-creating it anew — “really resonated,” particularly as she researches settlers’ theft and outlawing of so many Indigenous cultural items and practices for her doctoral dissertation.

“The world was upside down for our ancestors, so to be able to find something like this … I’m really moved by this piece,” she says. 

“During those silent years, when the Potlatch Ban was on, this is what happened: our ancestors hid their things away from the missionaries and from all these collectors.”

Christian White offers a private tour of his Bill Reid Gallery solo exhibition in ‘Vancouver,’ in front of one of his artworks: a mask that unfolds to reveal a face inside. Photo by David P. Ball

‘Mentorship that he learned from his dad’

The Bill Reid Gallery showcase of White’s work opened on Feb. 1, launched with a celebration featuring traditional Haida foods and dancing by the Tluu Xaada Naay Dance Collective.

It’s a dance group he founded in Old Massett in 1996, for which he built a dedicated longhouse nine years later.

Haida dancing forms an integral part of White’s art practice. A video display at the gallery shows him operating one of his dancing masks — featuring a beak which opens on hinges to reveal a face inside.

Seeing his father dance as a child felt “like a surge of pride came into me” for his culture and its revival after more than a century of suppression.

Decades later, his first solo exhibition “shows little glimpses of our history from the last 50 years,” he says.

For Bell, curating it was a chance to show White’s place at the intersection of multiple generations of Haida artists and cultural revivals.

“It was such a beautiful experience to work with him, because he didn’t want the show just to be about him,” she says. “He wanted to speak to … the mentorship that he learned from his dad, and that he’s been passing on in the community.”

Sdahl Ḵ’awaas (Lucy Bell) oversaw the year-long Christian White retrospective exhibition as Bill Reid Gallery’s guest curator. The show will be displayed until February 2026, and is free for Indigenous visitors. Photo by David P. Ball

White says that intergenerational work is an integral part of his practice, so much so that as he spends more and more time mentoring younger artists, he’s noticing his pace easing with each artwork.

“I’m getting slower,” he quips.

Passing his culture on to the next generation of artists takes a degree of “self-sacrifice,” he tells IndigiNews. 

“But I realized that it’s something that had to be done. And it was worth it.”

Apprentice artist Danielle Allard (right) looks on as Christian White discusses a monumental mask they and several apprentices created, titled Chaan Xuujii (Sea Grizzly). She experimented with her own acrylic paint technique to imitate abalone shell inlay for the 2022 cedar carving’s eyes — a method she dubbed ‘faux-balone.’ Photo by David P. Ball

One of his apprentices who traveled with him to “Vancouver” for his exhibition’s opening is Danielle Allard. (“A very accomplished painter,” White boasts).

In 2022, she painted a monumental cedar “sea grizzly” mask White and her fellow apprentices carved, which features shimmering abalone shell inlays around its mouth — and eyes Allard painted with layers of acrylic paint to mimic the pearly mollusc shells.

Bill Reid Gallery displays a 2022 monumental cedar carving, Chaan Xuujii (Sea Grizzly), by Christian White and his apprentices Danielle Allard, David Jones, Neil Goertzen, and Eugene Davidson, Jr. Photo by David P. Ball

“I don’t want to give away all my secrets,” she jokes to IndigiNews, before revealing how she used darker and lighter layers of paint to “give it that depth,” a process of experimentation she dubs “faux-balone.” (White chimes in with a grin, “You know, like faux fur.”)

Such ongoing mentorship of younger generations, White believes, is crucial to inspiring apprentices he’s proud to say go on to work in many mediums — from fashion to film, textiles to totem poles, comics to kids’ books in the Haida language.

“I provide the tools and the knowledge, and they provide the muscles,” he explains. 

“Once they’re done with me, they can go any direction they want … We’ve started that revival here, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Haida master artist Christian White guides a tour of his new retrospective exhibition — his first solo gallery show of his life’s work — which opened Feb. 1. Photo by David P. Ball

Author


David P. Ball, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

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