Isabel Rorick is a master spruce root weaver from a long line of highly skilled and celebrated spruce root weavers that goes back to at least her great grandmother, Isabella Edenshaw (Haida, 1858-1926). Like her cousins, Robert and Reg Davidson (see Lot 23, this sale), Isabel has worked to push innovation and recognition for Haida art on an international scale while still grounding her work in customary, historic forms. Isabel was taught to weave spruce roots by her mother, Primrose Adams (1926-2020), and aunt, Delores Churchill (1929-), whose extended family forms a core group of master weavers and teachers within various Haida communities in Alaska and Haida Gwaii. Isabel’s work is held in the collections of several major museums, including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Seattle Art Museum, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.

This beautifully woven spruce root hat features double stitch rings on the top half of the hat and a spider web pattern covering the bottom half of the hat and the brim. The uniformity and tightness of the weave are a testament to Rorick’s incredible skills as a weaver and artist. Spruce root hat weaving is also a marvelous Indigenous technology, as the roots will swell when contacted by water and become waterproof for the wearer. Fine hats such as this one have long been seen in Northwest Coast communities as a symbol of status and wealth for their owners, and collectors and community members alike continue to seek out fine work by artists such as Rorick.

Christopher W. Smith