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About the Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay
New Haida Heritage Centre Now Open
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 had its Grand Opening on August 23rd, 2008. This internationally significant showplace encompasses the expanded and revamped Haida Gwaii Museum with its many exhibits, artifiacts and audio-visuals, and as part of its many features has a Carving Shed, Canoe House, and Bill Reid Teaching Centre.
Haida Heritage Centre
Courtesy of the Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay, Photo Credit: Rolf Bettner
With emerging worldwide interest in West Coast Indigenous cultures, the new Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay opened its doors to the general public in July of 2007 for its “soft opening preview season”. Since then visitors from all over the world have enjoyed a preview of this internationally significant showplace, and have given rave reviews to this celebration of the Haida culture.
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. The Canoe House has Bill Reid’s famous Loo Taas and LooPlex, canoes that are a powerful part of the legacy that Bill left behind and are really a catalyst for what the Centre has become today. Visitor orientation briefings and presentations regarding Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site also take place at the Centre.
The Canoe House
The Canoe House has Bill Reid’s famous Loo Taas and LooPlex, canoes that are a powerful part of the legacy that Bill left behind and are really a catalyst for what the Centre has become today.
Bill Reid’s Loo Taas 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
This past year the Carving Shed was used to carve three Haida dugout canoes from start to finish. These are the first canoes carved in Skidegate in more than 20 years, since Bill Reid carved the famous LooTaa from a single cedar log. Some of these carvers had studied with Bill Reid, whose body was brought back to Haida Gwaii aboard the Loo Taas.
Carvers in the Carving Shed carving the first Haida canoes in Skidegate since Bill Reid carved Loo Taas more than 20 years ago.
Courtesy of the Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Llnagaay, Photo Credit: Jack Litrell
The Bill Reid Teaching Centre
The Bill Reid Teaching Centre is an educational component of the centre. At the present time, Andy Wilson is working on a box drum to accompany the canoes and he will soon be starting a paddle making and painting project. Bill Reid’s personal Frog button blanket that he designed (sewed by Florence Davidson) is included in the Haida Gwaii Museum’s collection in the Centre. There is also a 7ft. pole that sits at the entrance to the Museum that was carved by Bill Reid. It has a watchman on top, a Raven with a halibut in its beak, and a Wolf with a frog in its mouth at the base.
The Contact and Conflict Gallery
In the Contact and Conflict Gallery there is a large blow-up of the small pox illustration Reid did for the Raven’s Cry novel by Christie Harris and his quote that states:
“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
While Bill Reid was alive he indicated that his primary interest for the Bill Reid Teaching Centre was to develop excellent artistic as well as business/marketing skills in the students. He wanted students to develop good products and felt that students should be taught in the Haida tradition with good work habits stressed. It was his wish to become involved in the Centre, if his health had allowed, and to develop courses in silver/gold smithing, woodcarving and model making.
The 53,000 sq. ft. Centre resembles a series of longhouses, connected by interior walkways and atrium space. The design creates the feeling of a traditional Haida seaside village and resembles the general appearance of the village of Kaay Llnagaay or “Sea Lion Town”, which was located at this site. It is fronted by six traditional totem poles representing each of six historic villages in the southern region of Haida Gwaii.
Grand Opening August 23, 2008
The Haida Heritage Centre opened August 23, 2008.
For more details, visit the centre website at www.haidaheritagecentre.com and see the following press releases:
Haida Heritage Centre Press Release - May 22, 2008
Haida Heritage Centre Press Release - Aug 26, 2008
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
