Artist Statement: This is a rattle basket. I have enclosed small Haida Gwaii agates in the knob of the cover. The coloured bands is alder dyed spruce roots, woven in wild strawberry weave. The pattern is called salmon bones, woven with sun bleached grass stems.
The salmon bones is a new creation, it came about in The Winter of 2009 I was invited to be The Honoured guest and speaker at a Gallery in Seattle for their Winter show and Christmas party. I received the invitation in the early Spring of 2009, the theme of the show was, ' Raven's and Eagle's, The love of the North West Coast.' I had to produce something within that theme.
My sister Merle is a traditional Haida healer and channeler, so I have been getting her to channel our ancestors for information and ideas for my weaving. I called her sometime in August and told her about this upcoming show. I asked her what our ancestors said she said 'Salmon bones'. I thought hmm what does that mean and left it at that for several weeks. I called her again when I was at the point of weaving the pattern , I called her again and asked her the same question, the answer was the same . I laughed, she asked why I was laughing I told her that I had already asked and that the answer was the same. She didn't think that was funny because I wasn't trusting the ancestors. I said 'actually it is because I don't see the connection. What does salmon bones have to do with this theme? They said salmon have a lot to do with it, we all love the north west coast, we all love the salmon. All of the animals, bears, seals, Killer whales, birds, eagles, ravens and people have lived off the salmon for generations. The salmon has fed us all. At one time in the Spring the people along the coast and along the rivers inland all had special ceremonies to give thanks and honour the salmon. They returned the bones to the water ways where they came from, so that they could return to the sea. We have stopped doing these ceremonies, this basket is a reminder for the people to start doing these ceremonies and to give thanks to the beautiful salmon that was, and still is so important to us.

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