Stan Wamiss was born in 1947 on Gilford Island and raised in Kingcome Inlet, an isolated mainland village across the strait from northern Vancouver Island. He is a classically trained Kwak-waka’wakw artist producing pieces for both the market and for ceremonial use.

This headdress known as the Crooked Beak of Heaven is one of three cannibal bird headdresses danced as part of the Hamatsa ritual, the most important ritual of the Kwak-waka’wakw secret societies. Initiates earn rights, privileges and responsibilities through an arduous process of physical and mental training as well as ceremonial participation where they are deemed worthy of inclusion in the society. After months of training, the initiate enters the forest where they face months of isolation, restricted diet, weather, cold, and wild animals. During this time, they become supernaturally possessed by the spiritual realm of the forest. Upon their return, they enter the ceremonial hall and are tamed in a lengthy process that includes dancing the Hamatsa headdresses. In the end, they maintain their supernatural gifts as well as an elevated position in the Hamatsa society. The masks are large and intentionally difficult which is a critical test to their worthiness. In some cases, as with this multiple headdress, other cannibal birds are mounted into the same headdress. Beau Dick describes the multiple forms and the skulls that are frequently attached to the cedar bark train as equal to any diploma hung on a wall – a symbol of earning multiple positions within the society.

Gary Wyatt