The exhibit, titled Kihl ’Yahda Christian White: Master Haida Artist, collects more than 40 of his pieces in a variety of media
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Kihl ’Yahda Christian White: Master Haida Artist
When: Feb. 1, 2025-Feb. 1, 2026
Where: Bill Reid Gallery, 639 Hornby St., Vancouver
Kihl ’Yahda Christian White has been carving since he was 12 and began making a living at it when he was 17. Only now, at 62, is he finally getting a career retrospective.
“I’ve been included many, many group exhibitions over the years, where I’m one of 20 or 30 artists or so, and in many books, but I’ve never been in a solo,” White said.
“So it’s great that this opportunity came up with the Bill Reid Gallery. I go to Vancouver maybe two or three times a year and I always make a point of going to the gallery to look at the current exhibitions.”
Kihl ’Yahda Christian White: Master Haida Artist collects more than 40 of his pieces in a variety of media, including argillite carvings, totem poles, cedar canoes, gold and silver jewelry, regalia and prints, as well as videos of performances from White and the Tluu Xaada Naay Dance Group.
A member of the Yahgulaanas Haida Raven Clan and son to the late Chief Edensu, Morris White, the artist and his family have helped keep the Haida culture, art and language alive. The exhibit will also speak to White’s role as a founding member of the Haida Repatriation Committee, which has brought home the remains of more than 500 Haida ancestors to Haida Gwaii, as well as engaged with some of the 12,000 Haida belongings held in museums worldwide. He is also the founder of the Tluu Xaada Naay Society (Canoe People’s House), a group of artisans committed to preserving and enhancing the culture of the Haida.
His interest in carving began with his father.
“He was my mentor,” White said. “My earliest memories are of him carving. He would have been carving in argillite, copper and silver. He would make beautiful jewelry and have me file the edges sometimes or cut them out with a jeweller’s saw. It was a real hands-on way of learning. Then he would give us pieces of copper and argillite to carve, my brothers and I. We would carve in many different materials, and give us the tools. I’ve got the scars to prove it.”
Sdahl Ḵ’awaas Lucy Bell, member of the Tsiits Gitanee Haida Eagle clan, and her daughter, Gudangee X͟ahl Kil Amelia Rea, who is also White’s niece, are the guest curators of the exhibit.
“I didn’t have a chance to select the pieces,” said White. He currently works out of three studios in Haida Gwaii, sometimes with apprentices, depending on the project.
“These are pieces that the curators have selected from hundreds and hundreds of pieces that I’ve carved. I don’t know where 90 per cent of them are. I was so prolific. Every month, I would carve one or two sculptures, gold bracelets, silver medallions, rings.”
Many of White’s works are inspired by traditional stories, which he learned in X̱aad Kil (Massett Haida) through Haida language classes, books, recordings and storytellers. Some highlights of the exhibition include Raven Copper Shield (1976), one of his earliest carved copper works at age 14; Raven Transformation (2022), a large transformational mask that opens up to reveal a series of intricate inner masks; and House Box (2024), the latest in a series of bentwood boxes that will be featured.
He still carves masks for performances with Tluu Xaada Naay Dance Group, which he co-founded in 1996 as Old Massett Dancers.
“We didn’t have any masks, except for a few that I had created. In 2000, the second year of my training apprentices, we created more. Our collection has grown to over 40. Each set of masks is used on different occasions, following the seasons.”
Making the masks is a step-by-step process, he says, “all the way from the tree to the dance floor.”