About the Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay

Haida Heritage Centre
Courtesy of the Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay, Photo Credit: Rolf Bettner

The Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art is proud to be affiliated with the Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay in Skidegate on Haida Gwaii which officially opened August 23, 2008. This internationally significant showplace encompasses the expanded and revamped Haida Gwaii Museum with its many exhibits, artifacts and audio-visuals, and as part of its many features has a Carving Shed, Canoe House and the Bill Reid Teaching Centre.

The Haida Heritage Centre is an integrated complex of presentation, exhibition, learning, working and performance facilities. It is a place for nurturing Haida culture and sharing it with the rest of the world.


Mission Statement

”Through the Haida Heritage Centre we celebrate the living culture of Haida people. Through our language, art and stories, we share our relationship with the land and sea - that shapes, nourishes and sustains us. Kaay Llnagaay protects and fosters Haida culture by reaffirming our traditions and beliefs, encouraging artistic expression, and serving as a keeper of all that we are. Kaay Llnagaay is a place for the Haida voice to be heard. This is our gift to the world.”

The Haida Heritage Centre encompasses the expanded and revamped Haida Gwaii Museum with its many exhibits, artifacts and audio-visuals, including a specially commissioned video about the Haida culture. Apart from the Museum, features of the Centre include a gift shop, the Canoe House, Carving Shed, Performing House, the Bill Reid Teaching Centre and a small café. Visitor orientation briefings and presentations regarding Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site also take place at the Centre.
 

Bill Reid Teaching Centre and The Canoe House

The Canoe House has Bill Reid’s famous Lootaas canoe on display, a powerful legacy of Bill Reid and a catalyst for what the Centre has become today. 

In the studios and classrooms of the Bill Reid Teaching Centre, a new generation of Haida apprentices can learn their craft from master carvers and designers.

 
Bill Reid’s Lootaas in the Canoe House at the Haida Heritage Centre
Courtesy of the Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay, Photo Credit: Jack Litrell

 
The Carving Shed

In 2008 the Carving Shed was used to carve three Haida dugout canoes from start to finish. These were the first canoes carved in Skidegate in more than 20 years, since Bill Reid carved the famous Lootaas from a single cedar log. Some of these carvers had studied with Bill Reid, whose body was brought back to Haida Gwaii aboard the Lootaas in 1998.

Carving the first Haida canoes in Skidegate since Bill Reid carved Lootaas more than 20 years ago
Courtesy of the Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay, Photo Credit: Jack Litrell
 

The Contact and Conflict Gallery

In the Contact and Conflict Gallery there is a large version of the small pox illustration Reid created for the Raven’s Cry novel by Christie Harris.

In Reid's words:
“It is one of the world’s largest tributes to the strength of the human spirit that most of those who lived, and their children after them remained sane and adapted in part at least to the strange new world in which they found themselves.”

 
Contact and Conflict Gallery, Haida Heritage Centre
Courtesy of the Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay, Photo Credit: Jack Litrell

General Contact Information

Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay
2 Second Beach Road, P.O. Box 1523
Skidegate, Haida Gwaii, BC V0T 1S1
Tel: 250-559-7885
Fax: 250-559-7886
Email: info@haidaheritagecentre.com
Website: www.haidaheritagecentre.com
Operations Manager: Jason Alsop
 

Media and Travel Trade Contact

Jenny Wiles
Haida Heritage Centre Marketing Office
P.O. Box 93018, 5331 Headland Drive
West Vancouver, BC V7W 3G4
Tel: 604-913-1170
Email: jwiles@meadfield.com