Stronger Together
Why we're sharing
Colonialism profoundly changed Indigenous marriage practices, and much of the knowledge surrounding our traditional ceremonies became less visible over generations. This exhibition is not simply about looking back at how our people once married. We are sharing what we have learned so that other Indigenous couples and families can see how these ceremonies were conducted and, where appropriate within their own traditions, consider bringing these ways forward again.
By documenting what our families researched, learned and ultimately put into practice, we hope others who are searching for ways to honour their unions within their own cultural traditions can learn from what we have done.
And we have already seen that happen. Beyond the families featured in this exhibition, we personally know of two other couples who have been inspired to bring these traditions into their own marriages. That is ultimately why we are sharing this: so the knowledge doesn't stop with us.
Saturday September 26Artist Talk at 1pm
Totem Design House
3250 Comox Rd, Courtenay — K'ómoks First Nation
For the Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw, marriage has always been about more than the joining of two individuals. It brings families and tribes together and creates relationships through which wealth, names, dances, ceremonial privileges and responsibilities pass between generations.
Despite generations of colonial interference, the Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw never stopped practising their marriage ceremonies. The traditions survived by changing. Over time the old ḵadzitła and the later ḵutexa were compressed into the single ceremony generally called ḵadzitła today, and one element largely disappeared: the groom's payment of a brideprice.
When Andy Everson and Erin Brillon decided to marry, they restored it. Andy's family would support Erin's Haida family by paying a substantial brideprice, and Erin's family would answer that gift through a ḵutexa, bringing wealth back to Andy's family and providing the means for them to potlatch. The wealth moved back and forth, creating obligations and allowing both sides to do important cultural work.
Their marriage also brought two cultural traditions together. Alongside Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw ceremonial practices they drew on historical Haida marriage traditions from Erin's side of the family. The photographs and objects in this exhibition are part of traditions that continue to be practised.
The ceremonies
Haida Gwaii 2022 · K'ómoks 2024
Ḵadzitła: Lifting the Bride
Chiefs from the different tribes represented at the wedding called upon the inherited powers of their ancestors to help lift the bride. Andy's brothers Rob and Rick Everson, with Wedlidi Speck, did this work on behalf of their K'ómoks ancestors.
Once Erin agreed to be lifted, Andy's family brought forward the ḵadzitła̱m — the brideprice. More than 300 custom-made blankets with cash added to them, a value of almost $25,000. Restoring it meant the marriage began by materially supporting Erin's Haida family.
They also incorporated an old Haida tradition. Erin's brother Jesse led her to a marriage mat, where she sat beside Andy and took his hand while the Haida sang a love song. The marriage was completed with the transfer of the copper Xwa̱lg̱wa̱malis from Erin's family to Andy's.
Watch this partḴutexa: The Catamaran Arrives
Erin's family travelled to K'ómoks to complete the reciprocal work of the marriage. In the ḵutexa the bride's family repays the marriage debt, returning wealth to the groom's family and helping provide the means for them to potlatch.
The Haida arrived within a metaphorical catamaran overflowing with goods — bentwood boxes, copper bracelets, blankets, food and other property — with gisaxstala marking its boundaries. Newly made flanged boards stood alongside flat-board versions and two historic examples borrowed from the Museum of Anthropology and the Royal BC Museum, temporarily returned from museum collections to active ceremonial use.
Andy Everson and his brothers led their contingent from the Kumugwe Bighouse to meet the arriving Haida. The two sides faced one another across the accumulated wealth. Each family announced its presence in the old way, with marriage songs.
Ḵutexa: Sinking the Catamaran
Before the wealth could be transferred, the catamaran had to be sunk. Andy and his brother Rob inspected the gisaxstala surrounding the Haida party and their goods. One board, made for Erin, bore Dogfish, a principal crest of her Haida clan. Andy's youngest brother Jessie Everson struck it with an axe and split it in two. In the old ceremony, breaking a gisaxstala represented the destruction of one of the canoes forming the catamaran and marked the transfer of the repayment.
Erin then entered with her sons. Kaiah carried the copper Xwa̱lg̱wa̱malis. Kobe carried a k̓awat̓si, a box of treasures made by Marlo Brillon holding masks and ceremonial privileges being transferred through the marriage. Erin wore an abalone-covered blanket that also passed to Andy's family.
As the copper, the box of treasures and the rest of the wealth crossed over, the obligations created by the original brideprice were fulfilled. Erin left the catamaran and joined Andy and his family on their side.
Ḵadzitła: Carrying It Forward
The work of marriage began again, this time for Marlo Brillon and Karver Everson. Before their ḵadzitła, Erin's adult children Marlo, Kaiah and Kobe were culturally adopted into Andy's family. This allowed them to receive names and take part in the family's ceremonial traditions, and it allowed Andy to fulfil the role of Marlo's father during her marriage.
With the families assembled in the bighouse, the tribes were called upon again to lift the bride. Marlo stayed composed until the Tsimshian tried a different approach, tempting her first with a necklace and then with a newborn baby. Karver's family then brought forward the brideprice: 300 custom blankets, each carrying a $20 bill.
To honour Marlo's Haida ancestry, she and Karver sat together on a marriage mat she had woven, and a Haida marriage song was sung as they joined hands. The copper T̓sigis was transferred to Karver, and the newlyweds crossed over together.
Reawakening the gisaxstala
Eight flanged boards · Fifty flat boards
The flanged boards
The oldest gisaxstala were the raised front flanges of Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw bentwood box lids, painted with ancestral imagery and ornamented with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of sea otter teeth. During a ḵutexa they surrounded the bride's family and the wealth of the catamaran.
To prepare for the 2024 ḵutexa, Andy Everson studied historic gisaxstala in museum collections across Canada and the United States. His nephew Karver Everson made eight cedar flanged boards in a range of sizes based on those examples, some closely recreating historic boards including one collected in Haida Gwaii. Sea otter teeth were unavailable, so moulds taken from specimens at the Royal BC Museum were used to cast more than 500 replica teeth in resin.
Unlike gisaxstala traditionally given away after a ḵutexa, these eight have been kept together so they can be loaned to other families wishing to carry the ceremony forward.
The flat boards
Simpler flat-board gisaxstala appeared over time, made specifically for ceremonial use rather than as functional box lids, supplementing the older flanged boards when outlining the catamaran.
For the 2024 ḵutexa, Andy Everson designed new images and, with help, created fifty flat-board gisaxstala. Instead of sea otter teeth, abalone and mother-of-pearl were used to represent the distinctive teeth of the old boards.
They surrounded the Haida party and their accumulated wealth during the ceremony. At the conclusion of the potlatch, all fifty were given away to guests, continuing the old practice of putting gisaxstala back into circulation.
Dowry boards
Thirteen designs · Twenty-nine boards
The boards on this wall are thirteen of the same designs given away at the potlatch. They are available to buy, to give or to keep as your own dowry board. Each one has a unique combination of shell ornamentation, so no two match and none will match the listing photo exactly.
Can't make it on the 26th?
We're releasing the ceremonies on film, one part at a time. Leave your email and we'll send each one as it goes up.
The Stronger Together collection
Artwork to give · Apparel that celebrates love
Everything made for the show, gathered in one place. The dowry boards carry thirteen of the designs from the ḵutexa and are meant to be given, the way the original fifty were given away at the potlatch.
The three shirts carry the dowry board and formline heart designs.
See the collectionAndy Everson is a K'ómoks and Kwakwaka'wakw artist. Erin Brillon is Haida, of the Laana Ts'aadas Eagle Clan of Skidegate Village.