Masks

The Canadian Encyclopedia has this to say about Southern BC First Nations Carving:

"Painting and relief carving in the Coast Salish area is geometric - circles, chevrons, crescents, rows of dots, triangles and T-shapes. In recent years, scholars have noticed that these elements revealed a negative (recessed) formline-type design which is considered by some to be possibly ancestral to the northern formline tradition. Strong, simplified human and animal sculptures - house pots, coffins, grave posts and a single-mask type, the protruding-eye Sxayxway - were also made. The Southern tradition barely survived into the 20th century, although it too has enjoyed a revival since the 1970s."

To read Canadian Geographic's interview with Cowichan carver, Herb Rice, click here.

See some Haida Masks pictured at the Canadian Heritage Website