Nuu-Chah-Nulth Perspective to Kent Monkman’s Reply to Giambattista Tiepolo’s Apollo and The Continents

Dr. Er Atleo Umeek

Albert Einstein said that the only source of knowledge is experience, which idea parallels a Nuu-chah-nulth perspective to the nature of reality. The common household phrase qwaasasa iš aptly illustrates the implications of experiential knowledge as a truth about the nature of reality. The phrase qwaasasa iš literally means “that’s just the way things are”, or if used in reference to a person “that’s just the way he/she is”. The field of existence, or context, for this phrase is an assumption that each person is unique in creation. From this perspective ancient Nuu-chah- nulth operated constitutionally, socially, culturally, artistically and playfully within a field of infinite diversity. Just as Tiepolo’s work Apollo and the Continents, 1752–53, has a perspective that is contextualized by a biblical story of creation, so too did ancient Nuu-chah-nulth, within this same field of existence, have their perspective exemplified by masks, headdresses, and a Huupak an’um, which was a cedar box that contained the articles of constitutionalism, or way of life, not unlike the Ark of the Covenant to the Hebrews. For, you see, the light sought by Son of Raven was kept by the Creator in a cedar box, and it is this light that represents a way of Nuu-chah- nulth life.

Tiepolo has his magnificent way of expression that is very evident to the eye and ancient Nuu-chah-nulth had their way of expression that was not evident, but
rather hidden from the naked eye. This latter point is the reason for a large curtain, illustrated by symbols of territorial sovereignty, owned by a Chief and displayed publicly on ceremonial occasions. With drum, song, dancers and ceremonial oratory, there emerges from behind the curtain representations of the hidden. The name of the revelatory dance is hinkiic, which means gift-bearing. Today this dance can be said to represent a gift of life, which is first represented in the story of Son of Raven’s quest for the light.

Consequently, each morning at low tide on any given beach Son of Raven enjoys delicacies of food, the right to which he gained because he sought for the light. Ancient Nuu-chah-nulth found a correlation between seeking the light and food for living. Son of Raven is a Nuu-chah-nulth model. He sought light from the Creator and lives today as a result.

A Nuu-chah-nulth perspective has a foreground and a background within one whole just as can be found in Tiepolo’s work. The Nuu-chah-nulth perspective includes an irreducible polarity, known to science as light and dark and known within the spiritual domain as good and evil. When polarity is viewed without judgement then truth can be applied to each opposing side of it. That is, light is a truth about light, and dark is a truth about dark. Thus, good and evil are both truths, each within their own contexts. These observations reflect the basic assumptions about reality found within ancient Nuu-chah-nulth beliefs that can be identified in story, teachings, practices and a sustainable way of life. It is the ground upheld, albeit mysteriously, by the Creator known as Kwaaʔuuc, Owner of That Which Is.

Since the ground of life to ancient Nuu-chah-nulth is irreducibly polarized the issue became one of management. Metaphorically, it is the same ground of life faced by Tiepolo. To ancient Nuu-chah-nulth, as well as to contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth, the ground of life remains primarily a mystery. This is not to imply ignorance but rather to emphasize the infinite and unfathomable nature of creation. The first peoples, in Nuu-chah-nulth story, far from being ignorant, were knowledgeable, gifted and powerful. They sought to harness the powers of creation and found some success in this through the ʔuusumʔ, which is a practice that refers to a vision quest. It is one way discovered by ancient Nuu-chah-nulth to manage polarity. ʔuusumʔ is a compound word where the first syllable means to be careful and the second syllable refers to a ceremonial ritual, usually bathing in cold waters, whether a pool, stream or ocean. ʔuusumʔ was the means to a way of life, the means to food, clothing, housing and a measure of community security, just as it is indicated in the story of Son of Raven’s quest for the light.

What does ʔuusumʔ have to do with Tiepolo’s work? The practice of ʔuusumʔ included prayer, a deliberate denial of pleasures of the flesh, sometimes extreme exposure to cold and cleansing rituals that tested the body to the point of drawing blood, and sometimes an endurance and persistence in a quest until a vision or sign is received. In a reality and world characterized by an irreducible polarity ʔuusumʔ was practiced for good and for evil purposes, in the same way that it is practiced today within the field of religion. My great grandfather Keesta practiced ʔuusumʔ for the good of his community and nation. Since Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, 1776, and the current global economy that results in the trickle down effect was unknown to  Keesta, his successful capture of three whales resulted in a tsunamic outpouring of wealth to his peoples. Had Adam Smith and others that exemplified the Ages of Reason and Enlightenment known something about Keesta they may have taken Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, 1516, a bit more literally. Utopia of course was inspired by the letters of Amerigo Vespucci, a contemporary of Christopher Columbus with whom he disputed about the new world. Columbus argued that he had found the lands of the great Khan, the Emperor of China, and Vespucci said no, it is a new world altogether. In these letters by Vespucci, translated into all European languages and read widely by the intelligentsia, Vespucci remarked about the natives that each appeared to be “lord of self ”. During this same age it is Jean-Jacques Rousseau who said of his own people that “man is born free but is everywhere in chains”.

What may now be remarkable, this from a Nuu-chah-nulth perspective, is that what is said of one people from one culture applies equitably to people of other cultures. This observation is what is meant by an embrace of polarity, which is not the same as applying judgment or discrimination. An embrace of polarity is a practical acceptance of a characteristic of creation beyond change for human beings. It is for this very reason that the contradictions found in the story of Son of Raven are enjoyed to this day and never contested or challenged. At one and the same time there are two contradictory interpretations to this story, one is that Son of Raven steals the light and the other, appropriately hidden, is that the only possible giver of light is the Creator who owns the light. Also, hidden from the public eye, is that the gift-bearing dance, the hinkiic, represents the gift of life to people, which is a wolf dance. The Creator in the story of Son of Raven is the Head Wolf Chief in the heavenly community. The hinkiic dance to this day reflects the character of the Creator.

If Tiepolo’s work in Apollo and the Continents and Kent Monkman’s response to Tiepolo, Four Continents, is placed within a Nuu-chah-nulth perspective, then, just like the enjoyment found in the realistic contradictions of good and evil, expressed in the story of Son of Raven, then so too can there be satisfaction by responding to these works with the saying qʔaasasa iš, isn’t that just the way things are? To ancient Nuu-chah-nulth the mysteries of creation in its expression of contradictions mean that when a finger of accusation is pointed from one people to another people, then an irreducible polarity ensures that any accusation applies equitably to both peoples. Colonization, for all of its grandiose intentions, justified by gifts such as the one held by Tiepolo in the arts and many others in various fields of scholarship, sought to make the world a better place. Colonizers correctly identified the good in themselves but failed, from a Nuu-chah-nulth perspective, to identify the opposite of good in themselves that is everywhere an inherent characteristic of creation.

To this very day, just the mention of the name of Son of Raven to a Nuu-chah-nulth speaking audience brings knowing smiles of delight. Yes, those smiles admit, those are my failings too. To the ancient Nuu-chah-nulth the nature of being is comical. Son of Raven exhibited all kinds of failings; greed, megalomania, self-importance, sexual promiscuity, and always he coveted the gifts of others, never content with his own gifts. It is that ancient Nuu-chah-nulth foundation based on an embrace of polarity, based on an acceptance of the duality of being inherent to creation, that then allows for the real potential of its opposite. For failure must be contradicted by success in the same way that dark is contradicted by light. Both are truths each within their own context.

Kent Monkman’s work, as I understand it, is a playful reflection of reality that can tell a story similar to the Nuu-chah-nulth story of Son of Raven’s quest for the light. A quest for the light must begin in the dark, otherwise there is no reason for a quest. In the foreground to Monkman’s work are the destructive markers that characterize colonization, representing the dark passage, made necessary by an inherent polarity, that must be traversed in any quest for the light. The background to this work is appropriately hidden, as it always seems to have been, which is a characteristic of the Creator. Yet this concluding statement is contradictory for it asserts, in its affirmation of the source of light that has been affirmed for millennia in the practice of the ʔuusumʔ, that the Creator is both invisible and everywhere evident to our eyes, ears, and sense of smell, touch and taste. Monkman’s work today reflects, in its dark truth, the ancient Nuu-chah-nulth ceremony entitled the ʔuukwaana that translates as “remember reality, we”. Since the ʔuukwaana is a ceremonial embrace of polarity, a ceremonial accusation of dark truths pointed inwardly to a nation of peoples, it is the highest Chief that is personally confronted publicly. The highest Chief takes the blame for wrong living on behalf of the entire nation, which he allows ceremonially. The result is that the wrong way of life for which he is accused is corrected. The ʔuukwaana is a public ceremony to turn a nation away from the wrong to the right, from stealing to giving, from destruction to creation, from fragmentation to wholeness and from illness to vibrant health. Monkman’s creation and exposure of the dark side of existence, from a Nuu-chah-nulth perspective, is a teaching tool pointing to the greater reality of the light side of existence.