Christian White

Christian was born in Queen Charlotte City and raised in Old Masset, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia). He is from the Dadens Yahgu’7laanaas Raven Clan and his Haida name is Kilthguulans (Voice of Gold). He started carving argillite at the age of fourteen under the direction of his father, Morris White. He studied the work of the great masters and especially of his great-great-grandfather Charles Edenshaw. A self-supporting artist since the age of seventeen, Christian shows an advanced knowledge of Haida forms and an emerging personal style based on narrative story telling and strong use of inlays of various materials, even in his earlier pieces.

His sculpture Raven Dancer was purchased for the permanent collection of the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology when he was twenty-one years old. He has constructed a major longhouse in his home village of Masset and is a dedicated teacher and cultural participant. He has been active in the repatriation committee lobbying for the return of Haida artifacts and for overseeing the return to Haida Gwaii and reburial of human remains taken away for study.

—excerpt from Manawa—Pacific Heartbeat

©2005 Spirit Wrestler Gallery

• Christian White: Medallions, solo exhibition, 2004