Yukoner digs into history and function of First Nation octopus bags

A First Nation item that combines aesthetic and function was created in Eastern Canada, but got its unusual name in the Yukon.

Such is a finding of Curtis Collins of the YukonSchool of Visual Arts about octopus bags, which fascinated him becauseof their pan-NorthAmerican history.

"Their name comes quite a distance from their origin and probably a century after they were being made in various places in North America," he says.

Collins, whohas a grant from Yukon Collegeto research the eight-fingered bags, says they were created by the Algonquins in the late 1700s. Octopus bags wereeventually traded into the hands of inland and coastal Tlingit, who named thebagfor its resemblance to a devil fish or octopus.

Collins says by the timeoctopus bagsreached the Yukon, they were no longer used as a bag but as adance apronfor ceremonials purposes.

Hesays the bags are excellent proof that 18th and 19th-centuryindigenous artistswere part of "global efforts."Collins says although the designs were particular to the region, the materials were not. In some cases, beads forthe bags came from Italy or Poland and the cloth came from the United Kingdom.

"It really combats a really narrow view of trying to assign ideasofauthenticity," Collins says. "It shows that there was a flow of ideas, an exchange of ideas,anexchangeof materials."

Collins recently visited theMcCordMuseumin Montreal to see its collection ofbags, and plans to visit other museums in Canada and eventually the United States and Europe. He hopes his researchwill culminate in an international exhibition and a publication on octopus bags.

TheMacBrideMuseum in Whitehorse has examples of localoctopus bags in itscollection.

Octopus bags still being made

YukonerLena White made an octopus bag in 2013, using First Nation beadwork books as areference.

She says it took her three months of daily beading and research to complete.

White was introduced to First Nation beadwork by her Kwanlin Dun First Nationmother-in-law andsays the bags were used by medicine men and women, witheach finger holding a different medicine.