THE CEDAR ORNAMENTS

 

		The main symbolic element of the Kwakiutl Winter Ceremony consisted in the ornaments of twisted red cedar bark. According to the Kwakiutl themselves these ornaments were the most sacred and important object, appearing as the appropriate clothing of the Cannibal dancer (hamatsa).             Hamatsa dancer wearing the cedar ornaments signaling his condition of initiated in the prestigious Cannibal Society (Photo E. S. Curtis, 1915)

These ornaments were made weaving the bark fibres of the red cedar (Thuya gigantea o Thuya plicata).  This tree, which belongs to the Cupressaceae family, is one of the most imposing trees among those which grow on the steep slopes of the Pacific Northwest Coast. It can reach the age of one thousand years, with an height of 60 m. and a diameter of 6 m. The wood of this vegetal giant, soft and resistant, was the main raw material for the making of houses, canoes, the characteristic totem poles, and a great variety of everyday objects and utensils as well as objects of ceremonial character. The bark itself was employed in the fabrication of ropes, baskets, mats and clothes.

 

Red cedar tree, a species diffused along the Pacific North-West Coast

Such ceremonial ornaments were regarded as an attribute of the initiating spirits and the characteristic mark distinguishing the members of the various ceremonial societies. The red colour, which was already an aspect of the wood, was emphasized by a particular paint, obtained from the maple bark. The Winter Ceremonial began with a preliminary step, which was essentially devoted to the preparation of these sacred objects, and was concluded with the delivering of the ornaments utilized during the ceremony to someone who had to “keep” them until the successive winter season. The cedar bark represents, in this way, a veritable tangible symbol of the entire ceremony and the cedar ornaments are described with terms like “great supernatural one”, “happy maker”, “one who makes our ancestors happy”, and so forth (Comba 1992: p. 72-73).

 

Cedar bark ornaments, employed during the Kwakiutl Winter Ceremony. In the middle and bottom right are two headdresses and top right a neck-ring worn by the Cannibal Dancer (Hamatsa) (Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver).

During the Winter Ceremonial, the cedar bark ornaments are opposed to the hemlock branches (Tsuga heterophylla), because when the initiate comes back from his sojourn in the forest and is not yet “pacified”, his clothing is made of hemlock branches. They represent, in this way, the world of the woodland and of the Cannibal Spirit. The  various beings who belong to this world, like the Wild Man of the Woods, show themselves with their body covered with hemlock branches. Only when the initiate is brought back to the human condition, and his wild “fury” is exorcised, the hemlock branches are substituted with the red cedar ornaments. The latter represent the achievement of a new condition, the status of a member of the Cannibal Society (Comba 1992: p. 76-82).