Mask depicting Bear Mother with Her Children, 1997
by Janice Morin, Cree Nation
red cedar, cedar bark, horse hair, pigment
32” high (with hair) x 12” wide x 6” deep
The Bear Mother story is set in a mythic time when bears and humans lived alongside each other with respectful tolerance. A young woman slips and falls when she accidentally steps in a pile of bear excrement. When she vocalizes her anger with the bears in derogatory and unflattering terms, the bears take her captive and place her in a dark cave for several days. She receives counsel from the Mouse Woman (Quaganjaat), another Haida character, who advises her to place copper, a symbol of wealth and prestige, atop her next excrement. In doing this, she persuades the bears that she has exceptional powers. A bond develops between the woman and the Grizzly Chief’s nephew. They eventually marry and she gives birth to two cubs. Her brothers from the human village find her and her bear family, and in order to save them her husband sacrifices himself. Bear Mother’s story is captivating because she demonstrates her ability to adapt, grapple with the tensions between two worlds, and remain a powerful conduit for life.
Cree Nation artist Janice Morin was born in 1957 in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. At the age of five her family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and she has been living in the Northwest Coast ever since. Janice was introduced to First Nation art at the age of sixteen by Phillip “Opie” Openheimer. She attended Langara Fine Arts in her late twenties.
Janice is one of just a handful of women carvers, and many of her masks depict strong female characters in Northwest Coast mythology. She credits her years of learning and the advancement of her technical skills to her partner Randy Stiglitz, a Coast Salish artist and carver. Though her primary medium is wood, she has worked in different mediums such as acrylic paint and clay.
