Red Cedar with Acrylic Paint and Cedar Bark

5 1/4" x 4 1/2" x 4 1/2"

The box in which the Cannibal stored his prized possessions. This box is not tied directly to the Tánis or Red Cedar Bark ceremony as they are too sacred, but it's my own little story about finding a box of the Cannibal's belongings. - KC Hall

Skull imagery in Northwest Coast art is usually associated with the Tánis (Hamatsa) ceremony practiced by the Heiltsuk and Kwakwawa’wakw people. Hamatsa is a secret society that involves the concept of cannibalism, as well as rituals that return cannibals to humanity. Young males are initiated into the community during a four-part ritual in which they are symbolically transformed from flesh-eating cannibals, a state equated with death, into well-behaved members of society. The skull thus symbolizes the rebirth of initiates as they come back from the dead. Skull items are used during the final stages of the ceremony.