Tim Paul is a master Nuu-chah-nulth artist from Esperenza Inlet on the western shore of Vancouver Island. He was the first artist not from the Hunt family to hold the position of First Carver for the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria which was a program that oversaw international commissions, educational programs for visitors and apprenticeship programs for new artists. Tim Paul would carve the totem pole that was gifted to the people of New Zealand from Canada to commemorate the 1990 Commonwealth Games and was later moved to a public Morae in Aukland where it was raised with over 2000 Maori warriors honouring the event. He also oversaw the Nuu-chah-nulth housefront for the Canadian Museum of History in Hull / Ottawa. He would leave this position to assist with language preservation programs in Port Alberni, a program that he has supported in various ways including a carved totem pole and a cultural library on the waterfront in Port Alberni. Paul is a dedicated environmentalist and has documented the changing world in numerous art works. He has also produced a full exhibition and many examples of moons documenting the Nuu-chah-nulth moon cycle which monitors the changing seasons, arrival of food cycles such as salmon and berries as well as weather patterns.

Raven was perched in a tree enjoying his position of being able to see the world. A large bear lumbers by and the Raven in his usual fashion had to find some way to taunt him. The bear has some obvious faults – he is large, slow, cumbersome and appears to be not very bright. The Raven takes advantage of his high position and insults the bear relentlessly for all his negative attributes.

The bear finally tires of the ridicule and offers to show the Raven something quite special. From his body he pulls a great supernatural lightning snake which he then waves at Raven. The Raven is quite stunned but recovers quickly which is characteristically Raven and asks if that is all the bear has to show. The bear pulls yet another snake from his body which is more than the Raven can endure and he quickly flies away.

In this mask, Tim Paul has painted the two snakes in the design circling around the chin. The ghost like painting is a reference to the fog which allows the spirit world to run freely within the human world. The fog was created by the heron who has great admiration for the human world and is always trying to emulate human traits. The heron also tries to steal objects made by humans which it feels are particularly wonderful or useful. One of the most special things was fire which protected the humans from the spirit world at night. Every time the heron would steal a coal from the fire it would burn the heron’s beak and he would drop it in the water – creating fog. Instead of protecting the world from the spirits, it now offered a veil for the spirits to travel in.

–Gary Wyatt