At his very first Native art show, David A. Boxley, now a renowned Tsimshian carver and culture bearer, carved Tlingit and Haida totem poles from books. He used model paint instead of acrylics, and suffered from the fumes.<\/p>\n
In 2012, he and his son, David R. Boxley, carved a totem pole at the Museum of the American Indian. Through a live video feed on the internet, they waved at schoolkids in Metlakatla on request. More recently they created the Tsimshian house front that greets visitors to Sealaska Heritage Institute\u2019s Walter Soboleff Building.<\/p>\n
Boxley was the first speaker in an SHI lecture series in honor of Native American Heritage Month. He spoke Nov. 3 on the revival of Tsimshian culture and his journey as an artist,<\/p>\n
His own artistic journey has an arc that is intertwined with that of Metlakatla\u2019s and Northwest indigenous art as a whole. Just a little more than a century ago, Rev. William Duncan, the Anglican minister that led Tsimshian people to settle in Metlakatla, banned potlaching. Dance masks and regalia were confiscated. Tsimshian people were put into prison for traditional and cultural acts like singing, dancing, and giving gifts, Boxley told the audience.<\/p>\n
Now, he said, Metlakatla has \u201cseen a revival.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many people are singing and dancing now, and so many people are carving now that weren\u2019t when we first started,\u201d he said. \u201cI think (Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian art) stands with the best art in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boxley, who carved a totem pole for and hosted the first potlatch in the village, is a big part of that.<\/p>\n
The epidemics of smallpox and Spanish flu decimated Alaska Native populations.<\/p>\n
Overall, smallpox killed 75 percent of the Pacific Northwest\u2019s indigenous peoples, he said. This affected art, too; many of the people who knew songs, dances, and art died. Mungo Martin, Bill Holm and Bill Reid were some of those that helped keep it alive. Modern-day artists like Nathan Jackson, Norman Tait, Jimmy Hart, Delores Churchill and her daughters have also influenced him, he said.<\/p>\n
Formline, Boxley said \u201cis the foundation of everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the formline isn\u2019t good, the whole thing isn\u2019t good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And while he said he doesn\u2019t want to discourage anyone, he also said Alaska Native artists need \u201cto raise the bar for ourselves and for our people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because it\u2019s Native-made doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s good,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to pull everybody up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before European and Russian contact, the four Tsimshian divisions (the Nishga, Gitksan, Southern and Coast Tsimshian) met each summer to harvest eulachon, he said. They pressed oil from the fish, put it in bentwood boxes, and those boxes were traded up and down the coast \u2014 a functional way of sharing art.<\/p>\n
Many young Alaska Natives are producing beautiful, modern art by studying old pieces such as boxes and screens, he said, mentioning his son, David R. Boxley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat house front downstairs really is a direct result of our just studying old pieces,\u201d he said. \u201cInnovation is fine. We\u2019re in favor of innovation. It\u2019s a good thing, but we also have to be careful (to maintain the quality and integrity of the work). \u2026 We want to always strive for excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n
SHI president Rosita Worl thanked Boxley for his talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that future generations are going to be singing your praises,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel so honored to stand in your presence to see what you\u2019ve done. To see what\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
While his sons, Boxley said, are \u201cmy right and left hand, and my heart,\u201d his grandparents are the biggest influence on his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy grandfather is my hero,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s the reason I\u2019m standing here in front of you … Metlakatla di wil waatgu<\/em>.\u201d (Metlakatla is where I\u2019m from.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n For the rest of SHI\u2019s Native American Heritage Month lectures: On Friday, Nov. 13, Walter Soboleff Day, a panel will speak on retrospective views of Soboleff; Tuesday, Nov. 17, Haida master artist Robert Davidson will speak on his journey with Haida art; Tuesday, Nov. 24, Alutiiq master artist Perry Eaton will speak on \u201cArt of our Ancestors: Kodiak Island,\u201d and Thursday, Dec. 3, young artists Alison Bremner, David R. Boxley, Rico Worl and Nick Galanin will discuss the future of Northwest Coast art.<\/p>\n All lectures begin at noon on the second floor of the Walter Soboleff Building and are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At his very first Native art show, David A. Boxley, now a renowned Tsimshian carver and culture bearer, carved Tlingit and Haida totem poles from books. He used model paint instead of acrylics, and suffered from the fumes. In 2012, he and his son, David R. Boxley, carved a totem pole at the Museum of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":8476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-8475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8475"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}