general interest / Indigenous art
The Way Home David Neel
David Neel was an infant when his father, a Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw artist, died, triggering events that would separate him from the cultural traditions of his homeland for twenty-five years. When he saw a Potlatch mask carved by his great-great-grandfather in a Texas museum, the encounter caused the aspiring photographer to wonder if he could return to follow in his father’s footsteps. Drawing on memory, legend, and his own art and photographs, Neel recounts his struggle to reconnect with his culture after decades of separation and a childhood marred by trauma and abuse. He apprenticed with master carvers in Fort Rupert, and his career as an artist gave him the opportunity to meet and photograph talented artists and Indigenous people from around the world. His travels helped him grow as a person and become an accomplished and prolific artist, and they also reconfirmed the healing power of returning home. The Way Home is a testament to the strength of the human spirit to overcome great obstacles and to the power and endurance of Indigenous culture and art.
September 2019 192 pages, 8 x 10 in., 140 colour photos, 20 b&w photos 978-0-7748-9041-0 PB $32.95 USD / £25.99 GBP 978-0-7748-9042-7 LIBRARY E-BOOK INDIGENOUS ART / MEMOIR
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In 1987, I was living in Dallas, Texas, thirty-six hundred kilometres to the south, when was I called home by my great-great-grandfather Charlie James (Yakuglas). I was twenty-seven years old, I had a house, and I had a promising career as a photographer ... I sold everything, loaded up my Honda Accord, and drove north to pursue my vision of becoming a Kwakwaka’wakw artist, like generations of my family before me. I had no contacts and no game plan, just a burning desire to follow in the family footsteps. David Neel, The Way Home
DAVID NEEL, carver, jeweller, painter, printmaker, and photographer, comes from a family of traditional Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw artists, including Dave Neel Sr., Ellen Neel, Mungo Martin, and Charlie James. In addition to apprenticing with carvers in Fort Rupert, he received training in fine arts from the University of Kansas and Mount Royal College in Alberta. He is the author of Our Chiefs and Elders: Words and Photographs of Native Leaders and The Great Canoes: Reviving a Northwest Coast Tradition. He is dedicated to promoting and preserving his Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw heritage.
related titles
Our Chiefs and Elders
Native Art of the Northwest Coast
David Neel 978-0-7748-0411-0
Edited by Charlotte Townsend-Gault, Jennifer Kramer, and Ḳi-ḳe-in 978-0-7748-2050-9 ubcpress.ca
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