Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time: Kingcome Inlet Pictographs, 1893-1998

by Judith Williams

In 1998 Dzawada'enuxw artist Marianne Nicholson scaled a vertical rock face in Kingcome Inlet to paint a 28- by 38-foot pictograph to mark the continued vitality of her ancestral village of Gwa'yi. Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time is the story of that painting - and of earlier politically defiant rock art and the "coppers," ceremonial shields that are a central motif in many of these images. Often defined simply as currency by Europeans, the coppers represent much more. The Dzawada'enuxw never stopped potlatching, trading coppers, or creating pictographs, not even in the face of the government's attempt to move them from their ancestral villages and force their assimilation into settler society. Judith Williams tracks an amazing history of a culturally and geographically rich locale at a flashpoint in Native-white relations. Fighting recalcitrant weather, water and vessels, she investigates various forms and eras of rock art around Kingcome Inlet, explores the disintegrating old Halliday homestead, and plumbs the archives to measure colonialism's persistent legacy. Documenting Nicholson's painting of the giant new pictograph that contains the image of origin figure Kawadilikala, the Wolf, Williams provides a firsthand look into the remarkable symbiosis of old and new that has seen Gwa'yi and the Kwakwaka'wakw prevail against all attempts to eradicate their culture. Visual artist and writer JUDITH WILLIAMS is intimately familiar with the Kingcome Inlet and Refuge Cove areas of BC's coast, where she spends her summers. She has exhibited at UBC's Museum of Anthropology and at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The author of two previous books, High Slack and Dynamite Stories, she taught painting, drawing and theory in UBC's Fine Arts Department until retirement in 1998 freed her to sail BC's fjords at will.

Paperback

First published September 1, 2001