Artist

Edenshaw Gwaii


GW AAI EDENSHAW is a contemporary artist whose work can be found in private collections and museums around the world. As a pole carver, he has worked on nine poles to date. One of his most recent, The Two Brothers, stands 43 feet tall at the train station in Jasper, Alberta. Gwaai is also a classically trained jeweler, apprenticing under renowned Haida master carvers Gidansda Guujaaw, and the late Iihljiwaas Bill Reid. He holds deep respect for Haida Gwaii's plants, and helped develop protocols to protect them with the Council of the Haida Nation's Forest Guardians and as Chair of the Haida elder group Daamaan Xil Taking Care of The Plants. As one of the creative directors of k’aalts’idaa k’ah laughing crow story telling society, Gwaai uses gifts inherited from his people to explore ongoing narratives
and the intersection of stories, language, politics, and aesthetics. "SGaawaay K'uuna Edge of The Knife" is his directorial debut.

Videography

SGAAWAAY K'UUNA, Edge of the Knife

2018, 100:00 minutes, colour, Haida, with English or French subtitles