[BCMA] The Whaling People

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

[cid:image002.png at 01CC94C5.602CAAF0]                                   NEWS RELEASE







October 27, 2011

Published by the Royal BC Museum
The Whaling People of the West Coast of Vancouver Island and Cape Flattery
Eugene Arima and Alan Hoover

[cid:image011.jpg at 01CC94C5.B3C56CB0]The Whaling People live along the west coast of Vancouver Island and Cape Flattery in Washington. They comprise more than 20 First Nations, including the Nuu-chah-nulth (formerly called Nootka), Ditidaht, Pacheedaht and Makah. These socially related peoples enjoyed a highly organized, tradition-based culture for centuries before Europeans arrived. As whaling societies, they had a unique relationship with the sea.

In The Whaling People, Eugene Arima and Alan Hoover give an intimate account of the traditional ways in which these coastal people looked at and understood the world they lived in. They present the activities, technologies and rituals that the Whaling People used to make a living in their complex coastal environments, and their beliefs about the natural and supernatural forces that affected their lives. The book features 20 narratives collected from First Nations elders, each illustrated with original drawings by the celebrated contemporary Hesquiaht artist, Tim Paul.

Also included are maps of territories, types of canoes, kinship terminology, a spelling key for the words used by Whaling Peoples and a list of additional reading.

This book celebrates the still-thriving cultures of the Whaling People, who survived the devastating effects of colonial power and influences. It includes a history of treaty making in BC, leading up to the recently ratified Maa-nulth Treaty signed by five First Nations of the Whaling People.

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The interior of a house at Yuquot, Friendly Cove, 1778.                      Guests arriving for a potlatch at Opitsat and being carried
John Webber drawing; RBCM PN-16344.                                             ashore in their canoe while being welcomed with a song.
RBCM PN-2727.

Eugene Arima is an ethnologist specializing in Arctic and Northwest Coast culture areas. He has written, edited and contributed to several books on the whaling people. Arima lives in Ottawa, where he recently retired as ethnohistorian for National Historic Parks and Sites, Parks Canada.

Alan Hoover has written widely on the material culture and art of Northwest Coast peoples. He is co-author of the Royal BC Museum books The Legacy (1984) and The Magic Leaves (2002), and editor of Nuu-chah-nulth Voices, Histories, Objects & Journeys (2000).

[cid:image014.jpg at 01CC94C5.B3C56CB0]$19.95

Ethnology / History
Paperback, 272 pages, 6 x 9,
70 b/w photographs and drawings
ISBN 978-0-7726-6491-4

Distributed by Heritage Group Distribution.

Available online at www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/publications<http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/publications>
at the Royal Museum Shop and in bookstores
beginning November 15, 2011.


Early 20th-century whaler Do*kmi*s (Wilson Parker) from the Cape Flattery area, USA. He wears a bear-skin cloak and holds a whaling harpoon and two inflated seal-skin floats.
Edward S. Curtis photograph; RBCM PN-4980.


About the Royal BC Museum
As the provincial museum and archives, the Royal BC Museum preserves and shares the stories of British Columbia - on-site, off-site and online - through its research, collections, exhibitions, publications and educational programs.  Its two-hectare cultural precinct in Victoria also includes a number of historically significant buildings and First Nations sites; and its seasonal satellite museum gallery in Vancouver showcases BC's history in one of the oldest buildings in Chinatown - Wing Sang.

For more information about the Royal BC Museum, visit www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca or
call 1-888-447-7977.

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Media contact:
Royal BC Museum Media Enquiries
250-387-3207
news at royalbcmuseum.bc.ca

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675 Belleville Street, Victoria, BC Canada V8W 9W2

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