Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

The Nuu-chah-nulth are a First Nations peoples of British Columbia, Canada. Between the late 18th century and the 1970s they were referred to by outsiders as the Nootka, a name that came from a misunderstanding with the British explorer James Cook. Cook also believed that the Nuu-chah-nulth were one nation, when in fact they were several communities with shared traditions. Today there are 14 Nuu-chah-nulth communities.

Whaling, was historically a practice of great importance to the Nuu-chah-nulth, as it was to other First Nations. The presence of a whale on this basket is therefore not surprising. However, even with the importance of whales within the community they only began to appear on baskets in the 20th century. This helps experts to date this basket as earlier examples were almost entirely geometric in their designs.

It is possible that this basket was made for the tourist market. The Nuu-chah-nulth began making baskets for the tourist market in the 1860s and miniature baskets, such as this example, were extremely popular by the 1930s.