Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art

Ongoing Keeping the Song Alive. Indigenous Guest Curator Cheryl ‘Ka’kaso’las Wadhams. Co-developed by the Jewish Museum & Archives of BC, and the Bill Reid Gallery. For Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, songs are an essential part of cultural knowledge and ceremonial life, part of the rights and privileges of Chiefs that strengthen identity and lineage. In 1947, hereditary Chiefs Billy Assu and Mungo Martin began to collaborate with ethnomusicologist Dr. Ida Halpern to record the ceremonial music of the Pesa (potlatch). The results of their collaboration continue to resonate and inspire contemporary Kwakwaka’wakw artists and community members. Through a rich mix of traditional music and regalia, contemporary art, film and historical documentation, this exhibition celebrates a unique friendship, the spiritual power of music and the beauty of preserving ceremonial art and culture for future generations.