Robert Harju, Cowlitz Tribal Carver, and his son Danial, an apprentice carver, came to our class and gifted us with a cedar feather. We consider it an honor to have them come to our class, show us their artwork, demonstrate how they carve and involve us in the final stages of finishing a carving.
Hands-on, up close learning at its best!
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We each received a feather and later sanded them with three grits of sandpaper.
As Tribal Carver, Robert's job is to carve items used in his tribe's ceremonies and celebrations. The long platter above is for the first-salmon-of-the-year ceremony.
He also carves oars for the canoes, both long ones that serve as a rudder and shorter ones for rowing. Most items that are carved are also a work of art. This one in the picture was gifted to another tribe, hand-painted with that tribe's story of origin and then re-gifted back to Robert.
Part of being the Tribal Carver is passing the skill on to others. This apprentice is his son, Danial, a parent of one of our Seabury Ladybugs. We have such a great pool of willing, diverse, interesting and skilled people in our school community!
It starts with a block of wood.
And some very sharp tools.
A ceremonial fan of feathers in progress
We hear some great stories, see some beautiful artifacts and head on outside to finish our feathers.
The finished work. Each one turned out differently.
Robert taught the kids that the lighter colored wood, called sapwood, is closer to the bark of the tree and is where nutrients go up the tree. The red wood, called heartwood, is deeper in the tree. He purposefully carved the feathers to be half of each.
For more information, here is an article on a 22 foot cedar canoe Robert carved.
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