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Gyaangee

In this beautiful and informative short film, famed Haida artist Robert Davidson carves his latest monumental totem pole and gives a rare insight into the deeper meanings of the imagery found on North Coast Indigenous art works.

The articulate and engaging master carver shows how he once created a totem pole called ‘We Were Once Silenced’; a work dedicated to the memory of the wrongs suffered by his people at the hands of the captains of colonization. In his new, more hopeful work however, Robert celebrates the cultural and political reawakening of the Indigenous peoples of the world in general, and the Haida Nation particular, with a pole called ‘Gyaangee: Beyond Being Silenced’.

The viewer is treated to the extraordinarily beautiful shapes and curves of the master’s work. We’re astonished to see the peerless level of craft skill from the artist’s unwavering hands: work so fine that his knife produces a finish much smoother than sandpaper ever could. But most importantly we’re given access to the mysterious world of the supernatural creatures who populate Haida mythology and their spiritual world view.

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