Baskets : Berry and Clam

Object: woven baskets

Current Location/Museum: Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, Canada

Display Technique: storage

Condition: fragile, some deterioration

Use: harvesting shellfish, storage

Accession Number: 1052

Era: collected 1884

Collector: Captain Henry Chittendem

Collection site: Songhees territory, southern Vancouver Island

Materials: cedar roots, cedar wood slats, twigs

Size/ Dimensions: height: 34.5 centimetres, width: 31 centimetres

Use: harvesting berries, storage, food preparation

Accession Number: 13086

Era: collected 1969

Artist: Annie Charlie

Collection site: Yale, mainland British Columbia

Materials: cedar roots, cedar wood slats, cherry bark

Size/ Dimensions: height: 25 centimetres, length: 17centimetres, width: 15.5 centimetres

Baskets were among the most essential tools in a Snuneymuxw family's life. Pottery vessels and metal pots were not made or used by the Snuneymuxw before contact with European traders, so well-made baskets were necessary for almost every aspect of food harvesting and preparation. Baskets were woven in a variety of shapes, sometimes with handles or carrying straps called tump lines, which were used to support the basket and its load with the forehead. Snuneymuxw baskets could cradle a baby, carry water, gather roots, store wool, transport fish, or protect combs and jewellery. They were used in the harvesting of berries and shellfish.

Baskets are made using weaving techniques, but stiff fibres such as cedar bark, cedar roots, cherry bark and grasses do not require a loom. The coil or horizontal part of the basket is woven around the slats, which are the frame of the basket. The slats can be made of thin strips of cedar. Cedar and spruce roots are gathered, steamed and split into soft strands, or grasses are cut to make the coil. Plaited Snuneymuxw baskets used a simple over and under weave, creating a smooth surface. Twining is a weaving technique where the coil is wrapped around the slats, or around other sections of the coil. This creates different textures. Clamming baskets have open areas created with twining to allow seawater to drain out of the shellfish. Baskets for carrying water need a tight seal. Berry baskets were sometimes lined with skunk cabbage leaves to keep the fruit from bruising. Berries can be hard to pick from high, prickly bushes, (and the most juicy and delicious ones are always just beyond reach) so a berry picker was sometimes used. This claw-like tool is a comb to help gather the fruit.

The type of weave is also part of the decoration. Snuneymuxw basket makers used imbrications, where they wrapped the coil with an extra strand of bark or fibre in a contrasting colour to create a pattern. The design could be as simple as a stripe or a chequerboard, or something more complicated, such as an animal or person in many colours. Baskets were traded and transported throughout the coast, and similar styles were used in many places.

The traditional baskets and their techniques disappeared. For these reasons, it is difficult to find a "Snuneymuxw" basket. The two we have featured here are Vancouver Island and Fraser River Coast Salish and use the same form, materials and techniques once familiar in Snuneymuxw basketry.