A California collector of Native
art has donated an old spruce root hat likely made by a Haida weaver to
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI).
The hat is
dated to 1900 or earlier and is believed to be of Haida origin because it has a
“frog’s back” design—a recognizable Haida weaving method that was incorporated
to make pieces feel bumpy, like a frog’s back. The donor, former Alaskan Monica
Wyatt, first saw the hat in August at the Flury & Company gallery in
Seattle.
“I was transfixed. I couldn’t
stop looking at it,” Wyatt said. “But it was too
fine a piece for just me to have. I’ve collected contemporary pieces that
make me happy, but there’s no way I could feel good about having a cultural
piece with only me here to appreciate it. So I left the gallery.”
But she didn’t get far. The hat
called her back.
“The more I looked, the more I
was moved by the quiet beauty of the hat and the obvious skill of the person
who had woven it. And someone had worn the hat. I imagined the
people living in the misty forest.”
It was at that moment Wyatt had
the idea to buy it and donate it to SHI. Wyatt, who grew up in Fairbanks and lived in
Anchorage for seven years, visited the institute in May and was aware of the groundbreaking for the Walter
Soboleff Center in Juneau.
“It just came to me in a flash
that this was where the hat belonged. I’m not an expert or a scholar, but
I was fairly confident that this was a special hat, so I bought it.”
SHI
President Rosita Worl said she is humbled by the generosity of Wyatt’s gift,
which cost almost $5,000.
“She paid a
significant amount of money to return this remarkable hat to the Native people of
Southeast Alaska,” said Worl, noting it’s clear upon examining the piece that
the weaver was highly skilled. “We are so grateful for this. Now our weavers
will be able to learn this technique by coming to us and studying the hat.”
SHI employs
a professional staff to care for collections. The Walter Soboleff Center, which
broke ground in August, will have a state-of-the-art facility for ethnographic
collections, archives, a library and research.
Sealaska Heritage
Institute was founded
in 1980 to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding. The
institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of
Traditional Scholars. Its mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida,
and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska.
SHI welcomes Archives Intern Mary Brooks! Mary moved to Alaska from Colorado and enrolled in college in 2008. She received her B.A. in Social Sciences and interned with SHI last year. She is presently admitted to San Jose State University Masters in Archives and Records Administration program.
