With the kind authorisation of Editions de La Table Ronde
Integral text from the Gérald Hausman's book 'Bestiaire des Indiens d'Amérique'
© Editions de LA TABLE RONDE, 1996

Every day, a woman was going to the mussels' pillar. At a precise spot, she hit her mat and a killer whale came on the beach to make love to her.

The spouse of this woman followed her one day to the meeting point and saw the scene. He took her clothes and, in this disguise, he sharpened a mussel shell making a knife of it, and sang the song that calls the killer whale while beating his wife's mat

The amorous killer whale gushed out of water to take his wife, the penis upright and strong, as ready as the spouse was, hidden under the wife's blanket.

The latter grabbed his knife made of mussel's shell and cut the amorous killer whale's penis. This one fled with a cry.

At night, the spouse cooked the killer whale's penis. He grilled it on the fire. When the woman asked him what he was preparing, he answered 'something really sweet'. She happily bit in the treat. And her husband to say then 'Your killer whale husband is really sweet, isn't he?'

She rushed out, the ground shook and she ran to the water in which she dove.

And the spouse knew that he had married a female killer whale born with human flesh. He saw her body congealed in a reef when he touched the water. This body, this reef is now called the Woman. Haïda

MEDITATION ON THE KILLER WHALE WOMAN
The animals are "penetrated" by the humans by different means: dreams, visions, drugs, herbs, ecstasy given by trance and dance, even in art where human hands give life to the animal spirit.
White culture often considers this ability as a gift from above. According to the Shamans, one can learn it on the condition that whoever carries this gift is first born to the apprenticeship condition. The artist is a "born genius".

To eat an animal, becoming one flesh with it, is to know its essence. The hunter from the plains eats the heart of the buffalo to become impregnated with its power and wisdom. Cannibalism was also a kind of power transmission because cannibalism enters in the very nature of one's enemy, his honour.
Entering in an animal, is also penetrating it in the sexual act. Both White and Indian cultures use this path towards a creative world. The tipi is both vagina and penis. Its form and its signification prove it: yin-yang, cone and circle, mother and father, open energy and growth.
In this story, the jealousy of the man is implicit. He participates to the woman's ritual and identifies himself to her until he deprives the killer whale from its attributes. Everything inter penetrate each other. If the tone of the story is masculine, it fits together feminine and masculine feelings, strength of human and animal life
But the most beautiful feature, and the most mysterious as well, is this identification of the woman Haïda to the killer whale's wife. She looks like a human being, she acts like one, however, her heart belongs to another race. As per the end of the story, it is very simple. The woman with transcendent power returns to the water, to the mother, to the origins. Far from any cheatings. She's united with nature, she is nature. And if a human comes to put a foot on the reef called Woman, the Indian Haïda is convinced that it wobbles because paranormal creatures do not want to be treaded upon by humans.