Model wooden stick carved and painted with animal figure at one end. [CAK 19/05/2009]

Collection type: Object
Description: Model wooden stick carved and painted with animal figure at one end. [CAK 19/05/2009]
Long description: Model wooden stick carved and painted with animal figure at one end. The stick is carved from a single piece of wood. It is straight and carved in the round. It tapers toward the plainly carved end and is mostly unpainted. The other end is carved with the face of an animal. The facial features are shallowly carved and include a snout, mouth with teeth, eyes, ears and a striated feature under the bottom jaw. The head is painted black, with unpainted sections to delineate the ears, the areas around the eyes and the bottom jaw. The eyes, snout and mouth are painted red. The feature under the bottom jaw is also painted red. [CAK 19/05/2009]
Geographical reference: Canada
Northern America > North America > Canada; British Columbia Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) NW Coast
Cultural groups: Haida
Person: Field collector Charles Harrison; PRM source Charles Harrison
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1882-1890
Date collected: Between 1882 and 1890 ?
Acquisition information: Purchased: 03/1891
Materials and processes: Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Painted
Dimensions: Length: max 340 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1891.49.31
Research and responses: The following information comes from Haida delegates who worked with the museum’s collection in September 2009 as part of the project “Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge”:
This stick was viewed alongside musical instruments on Thursday Sept 10, 2009. There was general consensus among delegates that this stick, as part of the set including 1891.49.27 - .31, was not a drum stick. Delegates wondered if it was something that would have been used by a shaman. Diane Brown proposed that if it was a shaman's tool, each stick may have been used to cure a different illness. Diane also wondered if these were a chief's tally sticks. She recalled that chief's would use sticks to keep a tally of potlatches and the blankets they had given away. They would store bundles of ten sticks in the rafters of their house to signify the blankets they had given away. Christian White noted that there was very little wear on the sticks, suggestion they were models and not used. [CAK 07/04/2010]
The object is one of eleven sticks collected by Harrison and thematically resembles 1891.49.30, the only other stick within the group that has an animal figure carved on it. [CAK 19/05/2009]

Search terms: Model, Figure, Measurement, Medicine, Animal Figure, Tally, Medical Accessory