I used to live in Vancouver in the early 1980s and I’ve been back there three times since. Unlike most people I know who live in Vancouver, I’m not “over” First Nations design. Ever since I was aware of the art of the indigenous people of the American Northwest, I have loved the bold stylised forms they produce and I’ve wanted to own a mask from that area. Alas, the price of native masks has been out of my financial reach for years. First Nation’s masks can be bought in Gastown for as little as $400 CAD, but they are hideous pieces of crap. Very nasty. To buy a halfway decent mask one has to spend at least $2,000 - $3,000 CAD. If you want something really nice you are looking at between $8,000 - $25,000 CAD. At today’s rates the Canadian dollar is worth  $1.12 AUD, 92 cents US or .68 EUR.

Last year I was in Vancouver with my sister in Kitsilano near the corner of Alma and 4th when I came across what I think is a Kwakiutl eagle mask in a junk shop. 

 The junk shop seemed to specialize in old salvaged door and furniture fittings.  There were a few masks, mostly of poor quality, strewn about the place as well. I’d almost given up hope of finding anything interesting when by chance I looked up and saw the eagle mask suspended on a wire with an eye screw, screwed into the top of it’s dusty head. I asked to have a closer look at the mask and noticed that not only had it been “used” a fair bit, it also had been completely painted rather than the partial painting that is practiced nowadays to show some of the original wood.

This led me to think that maybe it was made in the late seventies when there perhaps wasn’t as much attention paid to what the tourist market was demanding. The mask almost looks like it’s a prop for a movie but I doubt that it is, because the movie industry would go and rent something like a mask, rather than carve one out of wood from scratch. I also suspect that it was painted all over to disguise what wood (it is made of wood) it was made from, due to the fact that yellow cedar is the wood of choice.

Despite my thoughts about the paintwork, there was no doubting the beautiful proportions and design of the carving. I’d say, that it is without a doubt one of the best eagle masks I’ve ever seen anywhere at any price. I was shocked that the storekeeper only wanted $500 for it and then dropped the price down to $350! Since it was about a month before my birthday, my sister (bless her generous heart!) offered to pay half the asking price as a way of giving me a birthday present. So there you have it, I now have a fantastic eagle mask. I’m so happy to own such a beautiful object that I don’t care that it’s probably not “authentic”.

During the 1988 world Expo in Brisbane my mother bought a season ticket and stayed with me for a few months because it was convenient for her.  At the time I was living in an apartment in an area near the city called New Farm on the Brisbane River and it was a short ferry ride to the Expo site. In one of the neighbouring apartments were a gay couple, Greg and John, who thought because I was “living” with my mother, that I must be gay. Anyhow, as they told me later, their “gaydar” told them so. Let this be a lesson to all you guys over twenty one years old, still living with their mothers!  

One day Greg and John invited my mother and I to a birthday party at their place. They were great guys and a lot of fun, plus my Mum also got along with them as well, so we went along.  My Mother has worked with gay guys since the sixties and over the years has had gay friends. So basically, I’ve been brought up around gays and as such, I’ve never had a problem with them or their sexuality. Ever since I developed (no pun intended) an interest in photography, I’ve admired the photography of Gary Winogrand, Diane Arbus and Alfred Eisenstadt, so when I was invited to go to Greg and John’s party I jumped at the chance to visit this “other world” and take pictures with the then new Kodak film TMZ pushed to 6400 ISO.