| A man from the Seal Tribe
Sculpted killer whales
In fir wood
Or any other wood.
He asked them to swim,
And they floated the belly up
Stranded on the beach.
He used yellow juniper wood
And drew white lines
Linking the corners of the mouth to the back of the head.
He then said: "Killer whale with a white mouth,
You will hunt seals and halibuts
But do not hurt
Human being."
And the killer whale swam up the creek
And the people said:
"Give us something to eat!"
Text TLINGIT.
Meditation
on the KILLER WHALE'S WOOD
Water, the sea, the woman's presence, and the fish - all these
themes are essential to the traditions in the North West coast of
the United State. To these, needs to be added the wood, which unlike
the animals, was given to the human as a gift from above.
The whole coast is recovered with evergreen trees, like spruces, Christmas
trees, yews, and sequoias. The best of all is probably the juniper
with multiple application, used to make canoes and houses, tools,
thread used in the making of clothes is extracted from the bark, to
the cradle for the new born that is stuffed with a juniper mattress.
As for the famous totem, this pillar representing the temple of the
gods in the form of animals, it represents the essence of the animist
art; its function is to transfer the life from the hand of the human
sculptor to the animal sculpted in the wood.
In the poem, the sculpted animal is invited to serve the human race.
The animal obeys. The killer whale attracts the fish in the humans'
nets and will not hurt them either. Mankind and killer whales are
not competing against each other but are allied to collaborate.
As well, the canoe sculpted in the juniper wood has a life on its
own. It's not dead wood. The wooden killer whale has a sensitive intelligence,
at the sole condition that the human god who sculpted it chose the
suitable wood: yellow juniper. The utility law is the established
ritual law. Human has only the usufruct, as impermanent as the whales,
eagles, fish and the forever changing sea.
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