Although unsigned, this model pole is attributable to Haida artist Thomas Moody, patriarch of the multigenerational Moody family of argillite carvers.

The subject appears to come from the Haida narrative now commonly known as Nanasimget and the Killer Whale. In the story, Nanasimget’s wife is seized by a Fin-back Whale while washing the skin of a white sea otter at the shore. The Whale carries her away beneath the sea, and Nanasimget follows, travelling into the underwater country of the Killer-Whales before ultimately recovering her with the help of supernatural beings.

The carving condenses that dramatic episode into a compact vertical form. The woman is carried directly upon the Whale, her small human body set against the broad, powerful animal below. A particularly close comparison is fig. 260 in Marius Barbeau’s Haida Myths Illustrated in Argillite Carvings, captioned Woman on head of Whale [1], which presents the same subject in a closely related arrangement. Barbeau illustrates several argillite carvings drawn from this narrative, evidence of the story’s strong appeal to Haida carvers and of the rich visual possibilities offered by the encounter between human and Whale.