Coin commemorates ban repeal

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Kwakwaka'wakw artist Lou-ann Neel has created a municipal trade token to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the repeal of the Indian Act provisions that banned the potlatch.

The copper coin is embossed with a raven design and will be worth the equivalent of $10 at participating businesses on Vancouver Island.

The coins are a fundraising avenue for non-profits. The way it works is the non-profits order the coins and pay for the coins and then put them into circulation as currency or as a product or both. If they go out as currency and people actually use them as a ten-dollar-bill, they're only valid for a certain period. These coins are valid currency from October to December.

"At the end of December, if people keep the coins, that's where we make our money," said Neel, who is a member of the Indigenettework, a co-op of First Nations artists who commissioned the limited edition coins.

The copper coins represent the copper shields used in traditional Kwakwaka'wakw potlatch ceremonies and as currency.

"The coppers are an essential currency item within our potlatch," said Neel. "So in order to potlatch, you have to have a copper. And there are only so many families and only so many coppers. A lot of the coppers were confiscated during the potlatch ban, and some of them have been returned and some of the families have had to purchase back from private collectors and some of them are just gone. We don't know where they are. So that's why I thought it was appropriate that the coppers would be the appropriate representation of the 50 years celebrations, sort of bringing the coppers back, but also making people more aware that they do have a currency value, they're not just a ceremonial piece...

"So basically a copper is like an individual. It has a name. It has value. Each time a family does a potlatch, let's say they did a marriage potlatch, the copper would already have a value. The groom's family would pay and buy the copper, and then the bride's family would purchase it back from them, so that action would double the value of the copper and thereby would increase the wealth, or the value of the potlatch."

There are going to be two streams for the coins. The first stream will be packaged as products, so they are going to come in a gift box, with a little explanation about what the coin represents, and they would be kept as souvenirs. Those will be sold for $15 at places such as the Royal British Columbia Museum, the U'mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, and the House of First Voices Cultural Centre in Victoria. There is also an opportunity to purchase a gift package that includes copper, silver plate and gold plate coins.

But if people want to buy the coin without all the gift packaging, then they can do that as well, and those will be sold for $10.

The coins will be available on Sept. 26, and are already three-quarters spoken for, said Neel. If there is a great demand, there will be a second coin made, with a limited number struck.

"We're going to do a second coin. We're hoping to make this a new tradition. What we're planning to do two coins per year. And just within our tribe alone, the Kwakwaka'wakw, we have 17 tribes, so that's possibly 17 different designs that we'll being doing over the next few years. And then what we're going to do is reach out to the Nuu-chah-nulth and the Coast Salish tribes so that we have all three nations on Vancouver Island circulating coins in our traditional ceremonies and in the public market."

Coins can be purchased through Neel at (250) 383-1342, or email at louann@home.com.