#Kwulasultun

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We've got TWO episodes for you this week. This is one of our most educational and interesting episodes. Coast Salish artist Eliot White-Hill talks to us about Coast Salish art, the importance of representation, his own journey as an artist, and recent Canucks headlines.

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More perspectives in this article. Daniel Wagner spoke to several Indigenous artists about the mask and the issues of appropriation. 

According to Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun, a Coast Salish artist and storyteller from the Snuneymuxw First Nation, the issue is not that Holtby wants to use Indigenous art on his mask, but that it was not done by an Indigenous artist.

“The appropriation of Indigenous art is harmful,” said White-Hill. “I think of the potential for respect and representation to be shown and how much it would mean to see that done in a meaningful way, and what that would mean for future generations seeing themselves represented. So it makes it very frustrating when there are opportunities and interest for respecting and holding up Indigenous cultures and art and instead of doing that and going to the source, the choice is made not to and instead to use methods that are appropriative.”

“I appreciate that Braden Holtby felt it important to connect with the regional Indigenous culture here in B.C. and that he wanted to celebrate and honour it with his mask,” said White-Hill. “That is important and I am glad for that. I hope that this can be a good learning experience, and I hope we continue to see opportunities to celebrate Indigenous culture in the NHL.”

The Canucks play on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples — the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations — so incorporating Coast Salish art would be appropriate. That’s not what appeared on Holtby’s mask, however. “The design is not Coast Salish. It’s a Kwakiutl or Kwagiulth totem pole design,” said Xwalacktun, an artist and carver with Squamish and Kwakwaka'wakw ancestry. “We just want to make it authentic.”

“I think it could be a collaboration,” said Xwalacktun. “It’s making that connection with First Nations artists. If he wanted to use his artist, he could just collaborate with a First Nations artist to help design it, then he can put it on the helmet. Then it wouldn’t be an issue, as long as the other artist has been acknowledged.”