The Kwakwaka’wakw continue the practice of potlatch. Illustrated here is Wawadit’la val gift ideas for him Thunderbird Park, Victoria, B.
A potlatch involves giving away or destroying wealth or valuable items in order to demonstrate a leader’s wealth and power. Potlatches are also focused on the reaffirmation of family, clan, and international connections, and the human connection with the supernatural world. Potlatch also serves as a strict resource management regime, where coastal peoples discuss, negotiate, and affirm rights to and uses of specific territories and resources. From 1885 to 1951, the Government of Canada criminalized potlatches. Nuu-chah-nulth word paɬaˑč, to make a ceremonial gift in a potlatch. Speaker Figure, 19th century, Brooklyn Museum, the figure represents a speaker at a potlatch. An orator standing behind the figure would have spoken through its mouth, announcing the names of arriving guests.
This overview concerns the Kwakwaka’wakw potlatch. Potlatch traditions and formalities and kinship systems in other cultures of the region differ, often substantially. A potlatch was held on the occasion of births, deaths, adoptions, weddings, and other major events. Only rich people could host a potlatch. Tribal slaves were not allowed to attend a potlatch as a host or a guest. Secondly, there were a number of titles that would be passed between numayma, usually to in-laws, which included feast names that gave one a role in the Winter Ceremonial. Aristocrats felt safe giving these titles to their out-marrying daughter’s children because this daughter and her children would later be rejoined with her natal numaym and the titles returned with them.
