The Raven and the First Men: From Conception to Completion

Posted January 9, 2020December 4, 2020 By MOA Staff


The Artist
Bill Reid was born in 1920 in Victoria, BC. His father was an American of Scottish-German origin and his mother a Haida, born in Skidegate, and descendent of a lineage from T’anuu, Haida Gwaii.


While in his twenties, Reid spent time with his maternal grandfather, Charles Gladstone, a carver and silversmith, who was the nephew and heir of the 19th-century Haida artist, Charles Edenshaw. It was the work of these and other Haida artists that inspired Reid to build on their legacy.

Already working in Toronto as a CBC radio announcer, Reid studied European goldsmithing in Toronto before returning to British Columbia in the early 1950s. By applying these jewellery techniques to Haida art, he pushed the old forms in new directions. Later, when he became afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, he began working on a monumental scale, creating sculptures in wood and bronze with studio assistants.

Bill Reid was a pivotal force in bringing his ancestors’ visual traditions into modern forms and to a wider public. He died in 1998.

A Haida Legend of the Raven and the First Men

According to Haida legend, the Raven found himself alone one day on Rose Spit beach, on Haida Gwaii. Suddenly, he saw an extraordinary clamshell at his feet, and protruding from it were a number of small creatures. The Raven coaxed them to leave the shell to join him in his wonderful world. Some were hesitant at first, but eventually, overcome by curiosity, they emerged from the partly open clamshell to become the first Haida.