Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
email alcheringa
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 Isabel Rorick
Haida
Isabel Rorick (b. 1955) spent the first 25 years of her life in her ancestral Village of Old Masset, on Haida Gwaii. Isabel was the third of six children.
Isabel came from a long line of weavers on both sides of her family. Her Haida name translated is Red Moon, which was a name preciously held by her maternal great-grandmother Isabella Edenshaw. Primrose Adams is her mother. On her father’s side was Selina Peratrovich, her grandmother. Her aunt, Delores Churchill and her two daughters, April and Holly Churchill of Ketchikan, Alaska, are weavers also.
Nonny (Grandmother in Haida) was a very special person in Isabel's life, right from her first memories of her. Nonny lived in Ketchikan, Alaska, and visited Isabel's family at least twice a year. Often when Nonny was visiting, she harvested her weaving materials of cedar bark and spruce roots. Sometimes Nonny made baskets on a wooden frame that Isabel's dad made for her. Isabel remembers watching her as she worked. Nonny sang or told stories as she worked. Nonny was always happy.
In March of 1978, Isabel's mother, Primrose Adams, accompanied her to Ketchikan to learn basketry from Nonny as well. Primrose was a natural and she really enjoyed it. It wasn't long before Primrose began making hats. Nonny taught her how to make hats.
It took Isabel a few years before she felt she was ready to learn hat making. She asked Nonny if she could teach her. Nonny said, No, my eyesight isn’t so good anymore. Go see your mother. In 1982, that is what she did. Isabel went to Masset, her mother instructed her on how to make her first hat. In the old days, there were many types of hats. They were different shapes and sizes, depending on what they were used for.
A work hat was coarse, small brimmed and undecorated. According to Delores Churchill, the work hats (rain hats) were painted with something that was scraped off of rocks in the Hyelen River at Tow hill on Haida Gwaii to make them water resistant.
The garden hat would go under the same category as the work had, but the difference was that it had a larger brim. According to Nonny Selina, the large brim was to shield (protect) the face from the sun.
Dance hats and feast hats were finely woven and worn by wealthy high-caste people. These hats were usually painted and/or decorated with ermine and, later, beads too. Dance hats had a small brim. According to Nonny Selina, this was so the audience could see the dancers' painted faces. Feast hats or hats with a wide brim were used at feasts (potlatches). The wearer, while eating, would tilt his/her head, and the brim covered or hid the face while the person ate.
The potlatch hat is ceremonial headdress. It is the most elaborate and is woven in one piece. It consists of several jointed cylindrical pieces. The cylindrical top is considered a symbol of wealth, with each section proclaiming a potlatch given by the wearer.
In the old days, feast hats and wealthy high-caste people wore potlatch hats. They were special hats, worn only for special occasions. They had special covers that fit over and protected the hats when not in use. They were usually cruder looking hats made of cedar bark.
Every summer in July or August, Isabel and her family would go to Old Masset to visit family and to harvest a year's supply of spruce roots. Isabel made her second journey to Ketchikan, this time to learn spruce root weaving. Primrose and Isabel went to Ketchican together. Primrose is still learning to weave as well.
It takes discipline to be a good weaver. Right from the beginning when you dig the roots, you can't just rip them out of the ground; you have to follow them carefully because they cross over one another in different directions. If you just rip them out of the ground, you damage a lot of other roots, and that shows disrespect to the tree.
When you're done digging an area, it's important that the moss and earth is put back in place the best you can. It shows respect to the trees. It is also important to thank the trees for the roots. Some people think it is funny to do that, but the trees are living things, and they have spirits too. (A good rooting area is usually kept secret until you're finished with the area).
For a long time, Isabel wondered how she could mark her work so that someone looking at a piece could identify it without her actually signing it with paint or ink. One day, Isabel was looking at a collection of photographs she has of old baskets from the Royal British Columbia Museum. There is a close-up of a basket bottom with a skip stitch pattern of two concentric circles. Since Isabel has three sons, she decided to use three concentric circles as her distinctive mark. Since then, she has used it on all of her work.
Isabel decided to would like to get back into carving, so she was making tools with Robert Davidson and his team of carvers. Nonny came to see her at the carving shed. She said, You have to make up your mind what you’re going to do. Carve or weave? If you're going to weave, come with me right now. Isabel put down what she was doing, and went with her and never looked back.
Robert Davidson commissioned her to make a big basket six or seven inches in diameter. He said it was so she could start making something different from what she had been doing. Isabel met Leona Lattimer at a party at Robert Davidson's in Whonnock. She urged Isabel to bring some baskets to the Planetarium Gift Shop. Isabel exhibited a basket commissioned by Bob White at the Cartwright Street gallery for the show A Quiet Wealth. It was purchased by the Massey Foundation and ended up at the Museum of Man, now the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Isabel had to make another basket for Bob White.
Isabel's happiest times are when she's weaving baskets, with pictures of her Nonny Selina around her.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
1994 Tribal Miniatures: Gems of the Northwest Coast, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
1995 Tribal Miniatures: Dreams of Silver and Gold, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
1996 Tribal Miniatures: Treasures of the Northwest Coast, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
1998 Tribal Miniatures '98, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
1999 Tribal Miniatures '99, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
1999 Vision Keepers, Group Exhibition with Four Prominent women from different cultural groups within Northwest Coast traditions, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2000 Tribal Miniatures '00, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2001 Tribal Miniatures '01, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2002 Tribal Miniatures X, annual exhibition, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2004 Tribal Adornments, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC
2006 Raven Travelling: Two Centuries of Haida Art, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
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