On July 29, 2021, a totem pole carved by the House of Tears Carvers of the Lummi Nation will conclude its cross-country journey in Washington, DC. The exhibition features large-scale graphics, videos, and a collection of objects curated by communities along the 2017 Totem Pole Journey. Each journey builds an unprecedented alliance of tribal and non-tribal communities who together advocate for a sustainable relationship between humanity and the natural world. Since 2014, members of the Lummi Nation have traveled across North America with a totem pole to raise awareness about threats to the environment and public health. The Lummi, also known as Lhaq’temish, People of the Sea, are the original inhabitants of Washington’s northernmost coast and southern British Columbia.
TOEM ART EXHIBITION SERIES
Neel.Kwel’ Hoy: We Draw the Line is a cross-country tour, traveling museum exhibition, and series of public programs that uplift Indigenous leadership in struggles to protect water, land, sacred sites, and our collective future. Because all of our communities need these role models to come from the last couple of generations and encourage our young girls and women to pursue the arts, too.” Ellen Neel’s artistic legacy continues for generations of artists, including her grandson David A. Our women have always carved…I’ve already heard a few people say, ‘Well, you know, our grandmother was also a carver.’ Good, I want to hear about her. Speaking about the exhibition, Lou-ann Neel, granddaughter of Ellen and the exhibition’s advising curator, explained in an interview with the Globe & Mail, “It’s a really colonial idea that our women didn’t carve. The show’s intentionally provocative title aimed to draw out more stories of Indigenous carvers who were also women. In 2017, the exhibition Ellen Neel: The First Woman Totem Pole Carver, opened at University of Victoria’s Legacy Gallery Downtown, showcasing work by not only Neel but also that of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I have strived, in all my work, to remain authentic, but I find it difficult to obtain a portion of the price necessary to do a really fine piece of work.” Of works, such as the one in the Gallery’s collection, Neel herself said in 1948, “Were it not for the interest created by the tourist trade, the universities and the museums, we would no longer have any of our people capable of producing this art…. Out of these places Neel sold miniature totem poles, masks, and items that she designed and decorated, such as coasters, placemats, and ashtrays.
She went on to open her studio shop, Totem Art Studio, as well as a workshop at Ferguson Point in Stanley Park. She developed an incredibly prolific art practice, producing small, mid-sized, and monumental sized totem poles. In 1943, she moved with her husband to Vancouver, and, when he became ill, she made art to support her family, which grew to include eight children. Art produced by Kwakiutl wood carver and sculptor Ellen Neel (1916-1966) signals her stalwart determination, perseverance, and profound achievements in times of adversity.īorn in Alert Bay, BC, Neel studied wood carving practices under her grandfather Kwakwaka’wakw carver Yakuglas, Charles James (c.
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