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Our institution is committed to the development of new modes of collaboration, engagement, and partnership with Indigenous peoples for the care and stewardship of past and future heritage collections.

Terms of use
The Bill Reid Centre's digital image archive is the digital version of a research collection first assembled by Dr. George MacDonald and his wife Joanne MacDonald over their long careers in Canadian museology, archaeology, and anthropology. The archive represents the MacDonalds' deep respect for the cultures of the Northwest Coast, their connections to numerous communities along the coast, as well as their relationships with museums, archives, friends and colleagues. These images are made available here for research and educational purposes. Other uses may require permission; users are responsible for contacting copyright holders to obtain such permission.

George and Joanne MacDonald Northwest Coast Image Archive

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: Field of Totems; Poles and mortuaries dotting the hillside at Chaatl.

: House-Hole House; House-Hole House of village chief Gitkun is in the centre with its associated memorial and mortuary poles. On the left you can see the frontal pole for House Dressed Up.

: Leaning Totems; Totem poles and a collapsed building.

: Finely Carved Poles; Exquisitely carved totem poles.

: Totems and Mortuaries; Tall totem pole flanked by two mortuary posts

: Totem Poles and a House; House with five surrounding poles.

: Edenshaw House; Property Woman Broke into the House originally built this house and passed it on to Chief Albert Edward Edenshaw. Here the house is shown with only a frame remaining.

: Village Panorama; View of the mortuaries clustered near the north end of the village with the islet on the right in the foreground.

: Frontal Pole; The frontal pole still standing after the house has fallen down. At the top of this pole sits eagle with three potlatch cylinders on its head, and between its wings a small face with three potlatch cylinders. Next is a cormorant, then a beaver, and at the base is a bear eating a man.

: Village Panorama; View of the mortuaries clustered near the south end of the village. The houses and their poles further to the south (left) were badly burned in a village fire and were not focused on during early visits.

: SGang Gwaay Village Site; Group of mortuary and memorial poles in front of houses at north end of village. The mortuary featuring an eagle standing on a seal on the far left is shown here with its separately carved beak still attached.

: Interior Pole; A finely carved interior post, an indication of the owner’s high social standing, once stood at the back of a house. It had a large human figure at the top holding a chief. The chief wore a dance hat and had in his hands a talking stick. He stood on the head of a raven in transformation, with a beak beneath its human-like nose. The large grizzly bear at the base was devouring a human figure and had small bird faces in its nostrils and small bears in its ears. Although this pole stood at the back of the house there was a round doorway in the stomach of the bear, like and entry-pole.

: SGang Gwaay Village Site; Looking north through the cluster of poles at the far end of the village. Note that the frontal plaques from the mortuary poles have fallen off or been removed, and that trees are starting to sprout on the poles themselves. On the islet to the right were shaman graves.

: Mortuary and Memorial Poles; Two considerably short memorial poles featuring human figures that are each wearing a chief’s hat are shown here in a group of mortuary poles. The mortuary pole in the centre went to Victoria in 1956 without the frontal plaque, which had disappeared many years before.

: Detail: Plaque; This mortuary plaque featured a hawk-and-moon with a separately carved beak that was attached. The mortuary pole was removed to Victoria in 1956 without the plaque, which had disappeared many years before.

: Mortuary and Frontal Pole; In the background is the Driving a Weasel House frontal pole that is still attached to the house frame. In the foreground is a mortuary post depicting a grizzly bear at the base. Frogs emerged from the bear’s ears, and between the ears was a whale devouring a man. Note that the frontal plaque has fallen off, leaving the grave compartment exposed.

: K’uuna Village; This view of K’uuna shows how the line of the house row is modified to follow the contour of the shore.

: Eagle House; The Eagle House stood in front of the house row. Here, the frame of the house remains with the frontal pole. The frontal pole of Peaceful House can be seen standing behind the Eagle House in line with the rest of the house row.The two mortuary poles on each side of the Eagle House are associated with houses in the row behind Eagle House.

: Property House Frontal Pole; The frontal pole of Property House as it stood after the house frame had fallen. The crests on the frontal pole are three watchmen, an eagle, a story figure of Tsimshian sea-chief/sea anemone, and a killer whale whose head, arms, legs, and pectoral fins are at the base. The body of the killer whale extends above and it has a woman in its mouth that is clutching its tail. This pole was collected by Newcombe for the Smithsonian Institution.The House That Makes a Noise is on the right in the background.

: Frontal Poles; Something Terrible Happened House with frontal pole on the left, Whale and Beaver Mortuary and Strong House with frontal pole on right.

: Tanu Village; The three houses in the foreground from left to right are: House That Makes a Noise, House Where There is Always Plenty of Food, and House with Fire Always Burning.

: Tanu Village; The two memorial poles (left) and the thunderbird and killer whale mortuary (centre) are associated with the Sea Lion House that is only partially visible on the left side of the photograph. In the foreground is the House That Makes a Noise, and in the back row is the Favourite House of Assembly.

: Sea Lion House; Shown here is the Sea Lion House with its frontal pole, two memorial poles and the thunderbird mortuary. In the background on the left is Chief Gitkun’s House-Hole House.

: Sea Lion House Beams; Detail of the carved beams for the Sea Lion House. Named for the carved beams that held the upper ends of the beams, which represented sea lions. On each post is a human surrounded by two sea lions in profile. At the base of each is a grizzly bear with protruding tongue.

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George and Joanne MacDonald Northwest Coast Image Archive

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