Kwakwaka Wakw Masks

The Kwakwaka’wakw is a tribe that built a prosperous culture that reflects their natural environment ;it is located in British Columbia, Canada. Many things that souley set apart the Kwakwaka’wakw from others are their degree of diversity in their types of masks. In particular the transitional eagle mask. The transitional eagle mask was used in celebration and during a potlatch. The masks were only one part of a costume that included a cloak made of red cedar bark. Many of the masks that were made embellish variety of complex brightly colored surfaces. These masks used elements such as the formline style. In the display at the Brooklyn Museum the mask provide and example that of the formline style, the mask in the museum displays a color
style of reds, blues, greens, and black. The masks much like a mandala, open or closed, have bilaterally symmetrical. Meanwhile these mask are made very intricately, The Brooklyn Museum masks are carved out of red cedar wood, which is an important material to many northwest coast tribes and also used for buildings. Since they are carved from wood the masks decay quickly and that is why most of the mask dates back to the nineteenth and twentieth. In the mask making project my mask is very based on this to this. My mask is made with a beak and wings much like the transformation eagle mask. While the Transformation eagle mask has a beak that transforms into wings my has a beak and wings to demonstrate the transformation between beak to wing. Also my mask includes lager black eyebrows to show the fericence that the eagles were given. Lastly, my project will be colored much like the the transformation eagle mask. After all the transformation eagle mask is a very diverse type of mask that and very compelling and enjoyable to make.