Bill Reid’s Jade Boat

The Spirit of Haida Gwaii (The Jade Boat) –
A 1996 bronze casting can be seen in YVR International. It is intended to represent the aboriginal heritage of the Haida Gwaii region in the Queen Charlotte Islands.
The 13 passengers in the canoe combine human and animal features. Reid’s factious “myth creatures” are drawn from the Haida world. Eagle bites Grizzly Bear’s paw, Bear faces his human wife and cradles a club and Mouse Woman shelters beneath Raven’s wing. Other passengers are Bad Bear and Good Bear, Beaver, Dogfish Woman, Eagle, Frog and Wolf whose claws are embedded in Beaver’s back and teeth in Raven’s wing and the human Shaman as the focal point. Reid said “at least …. the man in the middle seems to have some vision of what’s to come”