Rattle

Unknown artist

C. 1850

Wood, Copper metal, Paint, Fibre

Museum of Anthropology at UBC

Narrative: The rattle was last owned by H. Webb from Kingcome Inlet, so it is listed as a Kwakwaka'wakw rattle, however experts agree that it is a northern style rattle, and was more likely made by a Tlingit or Kaigani Haida carver. When Victoria was established in the 1840s, members of northern Indigenous communities travelled south by canoe for work and trade; the trip required negotiating Kwakwaka'wakw territorial waters, and sometimes a toll to be paid. Such a process, and of course other forms of intertribal trade, battles, and gifting, were a further means by which individual treasures and ideas circulated and changed hands. I