My Son

[Happiness]

As some of you know I live on Haida Gwaii formally the Queen Charlotte Islands. As in most First Nations communities the High School Graduation is low for Native children. Some communities like ours have a celebration for all of the Graduates from elementry school to university. At each of these mile stones in the kids lives they are presented with dinner and gift. These gifts are grade 7 a vest, grade 12 a blanket, and if you have not recieved one of the above by university you will recieve a blanket, this year one of the university girls requested a cedar woven hat. Also at this ceremony the child is given a Haida Name. My son has had his since he was 7 from his grand mother. His name is Haunts-Ada(not the proper spelling as you would never pronounce it) which means White Shadow, and he is of the Stastus Clan (Eagle)and his chief is Jim Hart (if you google him you will see the beautiful totem poles this man has created) Jim Hart was also an apprentice of the late Bill Reed.

As you will see all of the blankets ect have very beautiful haida art sewn on them. Please note all of the different types of art through out the pictures.

Traditionally the gifts are made by the childs Auntie, in my case my son has none to provide him with his blanket so it came into my hands. His blanket is made from felt, with the borders and design being Ultra-seud. His design was hand sewn onto the felt (25 hrs later) He has a satin lining inside that has his name and clan inside, this is not traditional but the artist wanted to do something different and thank god it turned out. All of the buttons on his blanket are hand sewn on and as you will see some blankets have upto 2000 buttons on them. His blanket is also in memory of his late Uncle Martin who had green eyes, hence he has an abolone button in the eye of the eagle. You also at these celebrations have to feed you guests, in my case I had to feed 24 people. We had Ham, potatoe salad and lots of snacks.

I am very proud of my son and thought it would be nice to share with those that may be interested in one of our celebrations.

Now he is going to go off to The Vancouver Art institute to do the Music program for producing and creation of Music. We just found out that he recieved a 2000 scholorship for a song that he created.

http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee123/princess_happiness/Haida%20Graduation/?action=view&current=IMGP5266.jpg#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs231.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fee123%2Fprincess_happiness%2FHaida%2520Graduation%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMGP5266.jpg%26

[Just Plain Ruff]

As some of you know I live on Haida Gwaii formally the Queen Charlotte Islands. As in most First Nations communities the High School Graduation is low for Native children. Some communities like ours have a celebration for all of the Graduates from elementry school to university. At each of these mile stones in the kids lives they are presented with dinner and gift. These gifts are grade 7 a vest, grade 12 a blanket, and if you have not recieved one of the above by university you will recieve a blanket, this year one of the university girls requested a cedar woven hat. Also at this ceremony the child is given a Haida Name. My son has had his since he was 7 from his grand mother. His name is Haunts-Ada(not the proper spelling as you would never pronounce it) which means White Shadow, and he is of the Stastus Clan (Eagle)and his chief is Jim Hart (if you google him you will see the beautiful totem poles this man has created) Jim Hart was also an apprentice of the late Bill Reed.

As you will see all of the blankets ect have very beautiful haida art sewn on them. Please note all of the different types of art through out the pictures.

Traditionally the gifts are made by the childs Auntie, in my case my son has none to provide him with his blanket so it came into my hands. His blanket is made from felt, with the borders and design being Ultra-seud. His design was hand sewn onto the felt (25 hrs later) He has a satin lining inside that has his name and clan inside, this is not traditional but the artist wanted to do something different and thank god it turned out. All of the buttons on his blanket are hand sewn on and as you will see some blankets have upto 2000 buttons on them. His blanket is also in memory of his late Uncle Martin who had green eyes, hence he has an abolone button in the eye of the eagle. You also at these celebrations have to feed you guests, in my case I had to feed 24 people. We had Ham, potatoe salad and lots of snacks.

I am very proud of my son and thought it would be nice to share with those that may be interested in one of our celebrations.

Now he is going to go off to The Vancouver Art institute to do the Music program for producing and creation of Music. We just found out that he recieved a 2000 scholorship for a song that he created.

http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee123/princess_happiness/Haida%20Graduation/?action=view&current=IMGP5266.jpg#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs231.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fee123%2Fprincess_happiness%2FHaida%2520Graduation%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMGP5266.jpg%26

Good job on ya, congrats to your son.

[spenac]

Very interesting insight about your culture. Thanks for sharing.