The Spirit Sings: Artistic traditions of Canada’s first peoples

“The Spirit Sings is a celebration–of artistry, of beauty, of practical technologies, and of the human creative spirit. For the cultural traditions of the Indigenous peoples of Canada are diverse yet continuous, resilient yet adaptable. This is a major study of the richness of the cultures of Canada’s First Peoples. In six essays and more than 250 illustrations–of clothing and costumes ornamented with beads and quillwork; stone, wood and bone carvings; jewelry, masks and ritual objects, as well as paintings and diary sketches by Europeans at the time of contact–are revealed the creators’ sense of identity and their spiritual and aesthetic relationships with their world. Contact with the Europeans brought new materials and technologies, which Native artists absorbed into their aesthetic expression. It also created new economic opportunities for a wide range of items for sale or trade. Many of these items returned to Europe and have come into collections outside North America, from Sweden to Australia. The works illustrated in The Spirit Sings have been drawn from museum and private collections in more than twenty countries. Turning sheets of birchbark into a canoe, a piece of alder into a bowl, or porcupine quills into decorative patterns takes not only great manual and artistic skill but also articulates they symbols and metaphors inherent in the raw materials. Through the spirit and beauty emanating form these objects, we can gain some understanding, not only of the objects, but also of the beliefs, the aspirations and the spirit of the peoples who created them.”–From the jacket