Visor
"The original ones... are made from sea lion whiskers... the beads are slid over the whiskers. The whiskers on a sea lion are pretty large, you know. But nowadays I think they probably use something else other than sea lion whiskers. I don't think they want to hunt them down just for whiskers anymore." - Tom Anderson, Cordova, 2022
"Anything that is made out of wood in this rainforest will go back to mother nature." - Tom Anderson, Cordova, 2022
"This is probably made as a piece of art. I can't imagine what a good wave or splash in the head would do to all the ornaments on it. A real strong wind would blow that stuff away too. Probably red cedar. It was easy to work with, especially for the bending of the back part there. It's easy to carve. All the ones I've seen are red cedar." - Mark Hoover, Cordova, 2022"The feathers they probably used a long time ago they wouldn't use now probably... came from birds that might be protected. Puffins and stuff like that." - Tom Anderson, Cordova, 2022
"So those figures on it, usually they would represent amulets that would help them hunt the specific animal that they represent. The more whiskers there were, the more successful a hunter this person would have been. So the more adornments, the more successful a hunter this person was. The same goes for the beads, they represent trade beads, to show that they were a successful hunter or trader." -Brandon Moonin, Port Graham & Tatitlek, 2022
*All of these quotes came from an Open Archive workshop held on February 4th, 2022. Participants willingly shared their knowledge for the purpose of cultural documentation.
This decorative visor is modeled off of the traditional Sugpiaq visors that hunters would have worn. In the back, sea lion whiskers are adorned with beads and feathers. White figurines depict a sea otter (front), a hunter wearing a visor (middle), and a bird on the side (perhaps a puffin) -- designed to represent the animals a hunter would have pursued and to give them good luck. These visors could be made out of bentwood or red cedar.
