An Exhibition of Contemporary
Northwest Coast Indigenous Art and Culture
||| FROM WENDY SMITH for SAN JUAN ISLANDS MUSEUM OF ART ||
The San Juan Islands Museum of Art is proud to present Shapeshifters – a major exhibition of contemporary Northwest Coast Indigenous art, June 13 – September 15, 2025, www.SJIMA.org. The Museum is located at 540 Spring Street, Friday Harbor.
The title Shapeshifters embodies the Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples’ connection and respect for the cleverness of the Raven. It also reflects their diverse cultures’ ability to persevere and adapt to change for millennia. Indigenous stories tell us that “Raven created mankind on the Northwest Coast. His people’s art transcends the human experience. Raven always outwits the moment. He transforms to meet life’s challenges and shapeshifts to create new solutions for today’s dilemmas,” stated exhibit curator Lee Brooks.
Shapeshifters showcases the extraordinary diversity of contemporary Indigenous Northwest Coast Art. Works featured include luminous glass, bronze sculpture, red and yellow cedar carvings, basketry, serigraphs, argillite and multimedia art by some of the Northwest’s most renowned Indigenous artists.
Four cultural styles: The main gallery will be divided into four sections representing four of the unique Native cultural styles of the Pacific Northwest. Works by Susan A. Point, Musqueam, will represent the Coast Salish/South Coast culture. Rande Cook’s work will represent the Mid-Coast/Kwakwaka’wakw style; Christian White’s art will represent the Northern-style art of the Haida, and Tim Paul’s Nu-Cha-Nulth/West Coast style work will complete the main gallery display.
Additional Native luminaries, such as Richard Hunt, Reg Davidson, Greg Colfax, Gordon Dick and Dan Friday will also be represented. “These works arise from the ancient history of the Northwest Coast and from the Heart of the Salish Sea,” Brooks said.
Lectures by the artists will complement the Exhibit, promoting a deeper understanding and appreciation of Indigenous cultures and values. See schedule at www.SJIMA.org.
Shapeshifters: “We are all shapeshifters” Brooks states, “all the featured artists have transformed to meet challenges unique to their cultures. Susan Point survived residential school to become a prominent Coast Salish artist. Rande Cook, hereditary chief of the Ma’amtigila, has chosen this moment to reestablish his people among the
ghosts of their ancestors on B.C.’s Village Island. Tim Paul keeps Nu Chah Nulth culture alive after many of his people were washed out to sea by floods and had to rebuild their village three times over the centuries. Christian White raised the tallest totem pole in Haida Gwaii after a 100-year hiatus.
Join us for this exceptional exhibition and delve into the remarkable art and culture of the Northwest Coast.
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I look forward to seeing this exhibit and hearing the lectures. What an extraordinary opportunity to see and learn about an artistic/spiritual tradition that has evolved on this coast for thousands upon thousands of years, continuing to this day.
Though having nothing to do with Ravens, 25 years or so ago three friends of mine (professional environmental activists) came up from Colorado. They’d been hired by REI and several other outfits to venture into the Canadian backcountry by kayak and take film footage of an area that was slated for logging. They spent a month traveling by kayak and staying with remote tribal people in small villages somewhere up north of Vancouver Island, (I don’t recall the name of the area they were in but do recall that the N.E. tip of Vancouver Island was their starting point). They saw lots of wildlife, including grizzlies and even a white Spirit Bear.
One morning my friend Dan got up a little earlier than his companions and went out and did some paddling in his kayak. He said that a giant grizzly bear paralleled him for a ways walking along the shoreline, and after a while the bear disappeared into the brush. He said at one point he went to the shore to see how large the grizzlies footprints were. He said they were huge… but more than that, he said that he followed them for a little ways and, get this, he said they turned into human footprints. He then went into this long tirade about how well I knew him, “You know me, I’m not a drinker, a doper, I don’t do drugs… I’m telling you they turned into human footprints.” As incredulous as this sounded, I believed him.
Anyway, later that day they came across a small native settlement where they ended up staying the night. While talking around the fire that night he told this story to the natives there. He said that when he finished it got real quiet, and then one of them said, “Shapeshifter.” The natives really believed in this, and he said they went on to tell more stories about shapeshifters throughout the evening.