6.4 foot large Hamatsa Hawk-Hawk Mask by Mervyn Child

• Nation: Kwakwaka' wakw art, Kwakiutl art, native artists Vancouver Island
• Artist: Child, Mervyn
• Type: Mask

Rare chance to get an absolutely incredible piece of ceremonial Indigenous art. 

Fantastic 6.4 foot (!!) Hamatsa Hawk-Hawk Mask, masterpiece by well known and highly respected Indigenous artist Mervyn Child, of Kwagul, Tlingit, Nuu-chah-nulth and british descent from the village of Tsaxis.

Please have a close look at this unbelievable Mask, hand carved in superb quality, the inside of the beak is fully and clean hollowed and sanded, the details and the depth in the carving lines is amazing. The painting done in traditional colors, adorned with the traditional cedar rope and cedar bark skirt. The mask is prepared and can be danced. Please have a look, I'm enclosing an image of Mervyn, demonstrating how these are worn and danced. 

Red cedar, prepared for ceiling hanging. Signed by the artist.

Measurements: 75" long, incl. cedar skirt 7 ft., 14" high (not including the cedar skirt) x 12" deep 

Meaning: The Huk-Huk (or Hok-Hok or Hawk-Hawk) is one of the mythological Hamatsa bird masks. There are three of them: One is the Crooked Beak (Galokwudzuwis), a monstrous human eating bird that produces great fear. Then there is the Man-eating RAVEN (Baxbaxwalanuksiwe) who eats his victim's - followed by The HUK-HUK who uses it's long beak to crack open human skulls and suck out brains to consume bodies

Legend: Huk Huk is a long beaked bird monster who is a part of the great household in the sky which is controlled by the Chief cannibal spirit, Bakbakwasnooksiwae. The Hok Hok is portrayed in dances of the Hamatsa society in the important Kwakiult winter ceremonies.

Central to the Hamatsa ceremonies is the story of some brothers who got lost on a hunting trip and found a strange house with red smoke emanating from its roof. When they visited the house they found its owner gone, but one of the house posts was a living woman with her legs rooted into the floor, and she warned them about the frightful owner of the house, who was named Baxbaxwalanuksiwe, a man-eating giant with four terrible man-eating birds for his companions (including Gwaxwgwakwalanuksiwe'/man-eating raven; Galuxwadzuwus/ Crooked-Beak of Heaven; and Huxhukw/supernatural crane who cracks skulls of men to suck out their brains).

According to one version, the brothers lured Baxbaxwalanuksiwe into a pit and threw hot stones on top of him until he died. With the death of the giant, the men gained mystical power and supernatural treasures from him. These included wooden whistles, a bear mask, bird masks, costumes, and a Hamatsa pole, all used in later actual rituals. Variations of the myth abound within the Kwakwaka'wakw culture, but this man-eating giant was aided by an old hag, Qominoqa who gathered bodies for him to consume.

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Note: Local pick-up or delivery on Vancouver Island and Vancouver area, no shipping, please contact us for details, Invoice in CAD, display of USD is for information only, based on a regularly updated exchange rate

 

Photos of This Piece

About This Artist

Mervyn Child (b. 1955) is an artist of Kwaguł, Tlingit, Nuu-chah-nulth, and British descent from the village of Tsax̱is (Fort Rupert), British Columbia's Pacific Northwest Coast. Mervyn comes from a family of distinguished...Artist bio and other available works »