Mask Series II

Mask Series II Prints:

These small format limited edition prints are ready to pop into any store bought frame!

They of course come signed and numbered, with an artist bio and a unique story to go with each design. See Below. 

Please note that these are individual prints and you must purchase all 4 if you are wanting to make it a set. 

Print Method: Giclée
Primary Edition Size: 200
Artist Proof Edition Size: 20
Released: December 2021
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11"
Artist: Andy Everson

Relentless:

One word that comes to mind when I think about colonization is simply: “relentless”. From the relentless numbers of people arriving on our shores to seek out a new life to the relentless atrocities that were inflicted upon my ancestors in the pursuit of land and wealth. Nascent governments enacted legislation to keep us contained to reserves and to deny us any rights as citizens. They even made it impossible for us to obtain legal counsel to fight them in their own court system. Denied justice, they then took our children away from our communities in an attempt to destroy the very identity handed down to us by our ancestors.

My grandfather was one such child ripped out of his community. As a young boy, he was sent from K’omoks up to the St Michael’s Indian Residential School in Alert Bay. Here, he leaned just how relentless the residential school system could be. Beaten for speaking his languages—both Ayajuthem and Kwak̓wala—he later returned home hurt. While he didn’t carry physical scars from this, his wounds were deep rooted and emotional. Later in life, he would lament that he couldn’t remember most of the old sacred legends he used to hear growing up.

Meeting my grandmother in the late 1920s, Andy Frank’s passion for our cultural ways was rekindled. Like Andy, Margaret came from a noble family and there were expectations that Andy had to meet. He made a pact with his father-in-law, Charlie Wilson, to uphold our culture and to build a traditional bighouse here in the Comox Valley. He built it not only so that we could continue to practice our culture, but also in which to invite non-Indigenous people in order to forge long-lasting cultural understanding. Some people didn’t see just how important these community-building bridges were. When told that he should just give up the old ways, Andy would not relent.

You see, relentless isn’t always a bad word…. My grandfather’s interest in our culture was relentless. My grandfather’s interest in sharing our culture was relentless. His humbleness was relentless. His vision was relentless. His love for his people was relentless. No matter what happened to him at any point in his life, my grandfather’s love was relentless…and that’s a beautiful place to be.

Audacious:

A long, long time ago my first ancestor ’Na̱mukustolis spent his days all alone. One day, the waters rose and started to cover the lands. The waves of water gave rise to waves of fear for this lonely man. It was then that a great behemoth emerged from the depths of the sea. It was a sight to behold! With a cheshire-like grin and the curled horns of a supernatural being, it made itself known to ’Na̱mukustolis. Encouraged to hop on the back of this titan, the two began to sink into the dark blue fathoms of the ocean. As long as ’Na̱mukustolis remined on the back of “Something Terrible”, or ’Na̱mx̱iyalegiyu, he could breathe underwater and remain safe. When the flood waters subsided, ’Na̱mx̱iyalegiyu placed Na̱mukustolis at X̱wa̱lkw where the mouth of the Nimpkish River would later appear. Sometimes it takes such as audacious task as climbing on the back of a great sea monster to become the ancestor of such a formidable clan of the ’Na̱mg̱is T̓sit̓sa̱ł‘walag̱a̱me’.

A couple hundred years ago, floods once again covered the lands. This time, however, they didn’t come in the form of water. Instead, they arrived in waves of people. Starting at first as a trickle, the trickle soon gave way to a torrent. Amongst these people looking for a new start and hope on Indigenous lands were sick and twisted individuals bent on our destruction. Throughout our territories our people were killed through disease and murdered with cannon fire. Where our people obstinately refused to die, they tried to “kill the Indian within us” by ripping our children out of their communities and writing laws to make our traditions illegal.

Our people took the audacious step of hopping on the back of our cultural ways. While covered by the flood of colonization, we kept breathing…one…breath…at…a…time. We potlatched in remote villages; we performed our sacred ceremonies around dining room tables. Our old people understood that the juggernaut and sanctity of our ancient cultures could sustain us. They were right! As we now push back the floodwaters of colonization, we emerge from its depths with a sh!t-eating grin. “Is that all you got?”

Dissident:

In December 1921—almost exactly 100 years ago—Chief Dan Cranmer hosted a huge potlatch on Village Island. He invited hundreds of chiefs and noble people from numerous different villages. It was one of the biggest potlatches ever held at the time. As always, the chief showed his ceremonial prerogatives: his songs, names and dances. In payment for witnessing the ceremony, he distributed valuable goods to all of his guests. What the participants didn’t know is that there were informants hired by the Indian Agent and the RCMP to report on those who took part in the potlatch.

In early 1922, the Canadian government charged 45 individuals with violating the anti-potlatch law of the Indian Act. The judge gave them all an impossible ultimatum: hand over all of their ceremonial regalia or face imprisonment. The chiefs of several tribes chose the former and relinquished their cherished masks and garments. They also gave up their “coppers”—shield shaped objects that held immense worth and acted almost like bonds within our Indigenous economic system. In total, some 750 objects were confiscated and held by the Canadian government until their return in the late 1970s.

For people from the villages who refused to give up their prized possessions, they were sentenced to prison. Of the 45 originally charged, 20 were carted off on a steamship to face jail time at Oakalla Prison in Burnaby, BC. For what? Dancing? Handing out apples to the guests? It would be laughable if the truth wasn’t so hard hitting. They sent these dissidents to prison to try to break the potlatch—to try to dismantle our entire socio-economic system. They attempted to degrade our high-ranking chieftains by making them feed pigs. They sent our hamat̓sa dancers to do manual labor. I feel so fortunate that our old people were better than that. Upon release from prison, they went straight back to potlatching. They were the guardians of our old ways.

Resolute:

When I think about my grandparents, my mind turns to thoughts about how resolute they were. I try to imagine what they went through during their lives and the struggles that they faced. They survived the great flu epidemic of a century ago and witnessed the increasing marginalization of Indigenous peoples in our own lands. They persevered through the illegality of the potlatch and came through on the other side disappointed, but still eager to teach their children the ways of their ancestors. My grandfather went to residential school and was punished for speaking his language. He later came back to K’omoks and raised my mom surrounded and immersed in the Kwakwala language. They were resolute in continuing in the ways of their ancestors.

I then think about their parents, grandparents and great grandparents alike. They watched as settlers slowly moved into their territories and gained control over their lands in the name of a never-seen foreign king or long-reigning queen. They saw their friends and family quickly suffer and disappear from introduced disease. They went to war with other tribes as greed from the new economy invariably spread as rapidly as any epidemic. Though our numbers dwindled to a mere 5% of our original population, we continued on because my ancestors were so resolute in passing on their culture.

Today, our culture is a battered set of armour that surrounds and protects us. Dented, scarred and sometimes refurbished, it stands as a testament to the old peoples being so resolute. Our culture is a gift from our ancestors. It has withstood suffering, death, attack, malice, racism and attempted genocide and, yet, it still guides us to this day. If history has taught us anything, it is that we must also be resolute for the generations yet to come.

“Resolute” "Audacious", "Relentless", and "Dissident" are all limited edition prints using the giclée method of printmaking. These prints were released in December of 2021 and printed by Andy Everson at Kwigwatsi, the artist’s own studio in Comox B.C.

A total of 241 prints per design “Resolute”, "Audacious", "Relentless", and "Dissident" and are signed by Andy Everson: 200 in the primary edition bearing the numbers 1/200 through 200/200; 20 Artist’s Proofs; 20 Remarques, 1 Printer’s Proof. These are printed on acid-free 100% cotton rag paper measure about 8.5x11 inches and the image size measures about 8x10 inches.

A further edition of 25 are printed on ready-to-hang acrylic sheet and measure 18x18 inches.