Dzunuk'wa, Dzunuk'wa, Dzunuk'wa

Look at this Wild Woman of the Woods. She is strong enough to rip a tree out of the ground. She carries a basket on her back, to put bad children into. She wanders the woods like sasquatch. The Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw)were vibrant storytellers, and hosts of amazing feasts. One of their sayings sums up the spirit of day for which the Feast Bowl would have been used:
"When one's heart is glad, he gives away gifts. Our Creator gave it to us, to be our way of doing things, to be our way of rejoicing, we who are Indian. The potlatch was given to us to be our way of expressing joy."

The potlatch was a time to feed, and also give presents, to your guests. To wear your best clothing, Chilkat robes, to sing and drum and wear the masks. To show your neighbors and those whose totem differ from yours, that you have had good fortune. What a way to share good fortune, and to ensure good fortune to come.

Dzunuk'wa - Dreams and Numbers

Yesterday Amy mentioned dreams along with story-telling. Being a better dreamer than story-teller, I went to bed last night thinking of my flight back to PDX. Evidently Dzunuk'wa was still on my mind because as I awakened images of not food but numbers were floating out of the feast bowl. They weren't exactly like the ones in the image above but close enough for the sake of this post. So while some of us feast on food and others on words, others of us relish numbers.

Alfred Maurer was not at all pleased that I hadn't followed up on at least one communal meal from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a result, I'm also including Peter Bruegel, the Elder's The Harvesters in today's post. Here we can see a group of workers, some of them taking a break from their hard work to eat a meal together. Others are resting after the work and the food.

To show his adventurous spirit Maurer is anxiously looking forward to seeing the Native American Collection at the Portland Art Museum, especially after reading Frommer's review of it ..." the best reason to visit is to see the extensive collection of Native American art and artifacts".

Dzunuk'wa - Another View

Looking around the internet, I discovered this image of Dzunuk'wa, the Portland Art Museum's potlatch feast bowl. From this bird's eye view, the bowl looks even more like a canoe or boat. Peeking inside you find not one, not two, but three serving bowls, plus the two on the top of the legs. An added plus to this image is that in the lower left corner you can see one of the masks Amy mentioned in her earlier posts. In addition, the bottom part of William Morris' "Artifact Panel" (399 pieces of hand blown glass spanning 3 stories) peeks out from the upper left.

The thought of Dzunuk'wa feast bowl as a boat reminded me of
Renoir's The Luncheon of the Boating Party. Eating should be enjoyed with others whether as part of a traditional ceremony or for the joy of being together. And in my mind a meal taken outside with friends is even better.

Look at the Canoe!

Kids seem to gravitate to Dzunuk'wa when they enter the Native American collection, they often think she's a canoe, but then they notice the feet and the smaller bowls inside her, and they start to question the canoe idea.
The story goes that Dzunuk'wa lives like a bear in the woods, eating children that wander off. Not unlike the witch in the Hansel and Gretel story, only this tale has no evil stepmother. The story is a warning to children not to wander away from home. On the feast bowl Dzunuk'wa's shown with whistling lips, she whistles like the wind so the wind will be a constant reminder of her.
In one version of the story I've heard there are two brothers who get captured and taken away by Dzunuk'wa. Their mother is so heartbroken that she cries and cries, and her tears and her snot roll in the soil at her feet and the blob she creates turns into a baby boy who grows up very quickly and becomes a hero who rescues her sons from Dzunuk'wa.
Just above the feast bowl are two Thunder Bird masks, the whole room is alive with masks of Wolf, Frog, Orca and Eagle Woman. This is one of the most spectacular pages of the museum's story book.

A Feast of a Different Kind

Whenever I see Dzunuk'wa, I am reminded of how different the communal meals of the Native Americans were from those depicted in the art of the modern western world. Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass) by Édouard Manet was rejected by the Salon in 1863. The jury was horrified that Manet had painted a nude woman with two clothed men on a picnic. Not always noticed is the nude bathing in the background. Some say this painting was originally called The Bath. With either title the communal food of the western world seems far more sedate even with naked women juxtaposed with clothed men. About this time while I was thinking about food and its presentation, Alfred Maurer chimed in that he hopes to visit the Portland Art Museum so that he can see the feast bowl. He's not convinced that it's as long as I have been telling him it is. He also wants to show me some paintings at the museums here in New York that depict communal eating.

Dzunuk'wa

Dzunuk'wa Feast Dish is the first piece most people see when they vixit the Portland Art Museum's Native American Art of the Northwest Coast collection. Amy mentions in her post on April Poetry challenge yesterday that "It is a potlatch bowl of the Kwakwaka'wakw, made around 1900, of Cedar, and painted. The legend goes that there is a monster, she looks like this bowl, large and open mouthed. She eats children she finds in the woods, far from their mothers."

Dzunuk'wa is also the featured work of art for Fifty Two Pieces sister site April Poetry Challenge. With a visit there you'll be able to read poetry it has inspired. If a few lines come to you, post them there for all of us to feast on.