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Americas Collection - Raven costume

Raven Costume, made by Kwa-guilth artist Calvin Hunt, from British Columbia, Canada.

This costume was gifted to the Australian Museum as part of a repatriation and exchange, which involved the return of part of an older collection of Northwest Coast material from the Australian Museum's collections to the Kwa-guilth community (via the Canadian Museum of Civilization). The older items were replaced by the Kwa-guilth community with newer items made in the traditional form. The original collection had been acquired by the Australian Museum in 1912 from a businessman who had brought a dance troupe from Cape Mudge, British Columbia to Australia with the aim of making money from the venture. The businessman went bankrupt and ultimately the Museum purchased the material. Research conducted in the 1980s was unable to uncover the eventual fate of the dance troupe.

The Raven is an important figure in the artist's family tradition, and a significant part of the cultural life of many Indigenous peoples living on the north-west coast of North America. The Raven has the power to transform into a human being, a process enacted in the dance ceremony in which this costume is worn. The mask is constructed with pulleys, so that the dancer can enact this transformation by manipulating the pulleys with his hands under the wings of the cloak. Great strength is required to wear and operate the mask while dancing.

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