Long Beach Lodge recently had the honour of hosting Billy George, the local carver who created The Raven’s Mask – a strikingly beautiful piece of art that hangs at the entrance to the Great Room.
Long Beach Lodge Resort acknowledges with respect that we are situated on the unceded traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, who are part of the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. The Tla-o-qui-aht have been stewards of these lands and waters since time immemorial and continue to maintain their deep connection to this territory.
We recognize the ongoing rights, histories, and cultures of the Tla-o-qui-aht people and are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and welcome guests on their traditional lands.
You can almost sense its presence before you walk up the stairs and see it with your eyes. And then when you enter The Great Room at Long Beach Lodge Resort, you find yourself under the watchful eye of The Raven’s Mask: a traditional piece of Kwakwaka’wakw art carved byTofino artist Billy George.
The Raven’s Mask hangs proudly from the ceiling just behind the main entrance into The Great Room and commands the attention of anyone who walks through the door.
“I never come in here without looking at it”, says Tim Hackett, who bought the mask in 2001 about a year before the lodge opened.
“We basically built the lodge around that one piece. And we knew we’d have it here. So that’s why the wood and everything else was introduced into the Great Room,” says Tim. “It really set the theme for the whole project and was front-and-centre in what we were going to project here as a lodge.”
Now, almost 25 years later, Long Beach Lodge has grown into a successful local business that welcomes people from all over the world. And we recently brought Georgia George, Billy’s daughter, onto our Guest Services Team.
“When I was introduced to Georgia, she says, ‘well, I don’t know if you know, but my dad carved the Raven’s Mask,’” says Tim.
We marked that generational connection by inviting Billy to the lodge for a few days to check in on his piece, hang out with his family and talk about the process behind creating such a striking piece of art. We sat in The Great Room one afternoon with Georgia, Billy, and Jack – one of Billy’s sons.
“It’s pretty cool, just being around part of my dad and my parents whenever I come around,” says Georgia about what it’s like to see The Raven’s Mask whenever she comes to work. “So it’s always really neat to see pieces that I grew up seeing be made.”
“When we’re with his mom, my Grandma Anne, she always gets so hyped up to see [the mask], even if we’re just coming for breakfast,” adds Jack. “It’s something that really brightens my Grandma’s day.”
A member of the Ahousat First Nation, which is one of the 14 Nuu-chah-nulth Nations, Billy grew up in Tofino and now lives in Port Alberni. He became a commercial fisherman at age 12, which is around the same time he learned how to carve.
Billy carved the Raven’s Mask almost entirely with a set of 12 different knives that he made when he was younger. The mask is made of red cedar, with strips of cedar bark and took about four months to create.
“I always say the wood kind of picks you when you’re picking out something to carve,” he says.
“I seen what I wanted in it right away. The art is mixed Kwakwaka’wakw and mixed Westcoast, so I added my touch to it,” says Billy. “It’s going to be one of a kind. There won’t be another.”
One of the reasons the piece is so special is that Billy had help from his family to create the mask. His wife at the time, Georgia and Jacks’ mom, helped with the cedar bark.
“She’s been doing bark since she was a little kid from her mom taught her,” says Billy. “So she did that rope that goes around the top and all of the stuff that hangs down. I was really thankful that she helped me with that.”
And Billy’s dad helped with the final touches.
“My dad works with me, my late dad. He’ll do stuff to perfection. Sit there all day with a little hand sander,” says Billy.
And if you look at the old photos from Billy’s shop when the mask was being carved, you see a young three-year-old Georgia George supervising the process.
When asked what the Raven symbolizes in Ahousat culture, Billy smiles.
“They’re sneaky and they’re pretty wise,” he says. “They can mimic things.”
Carving is a skill that’s passed from one generation to the next, so the Raven’s Mask pays homage to Billy’s lineage. And it also carries the history of the Ahousat people, who have been in the area for thousands of years.
Billy’s traditional Nuu-chah-nulth name is Hayupiinulth.
“I’m the 12th generation to hold it,” he says.
Billy comes from a line of war chiefs and the mask is inspired by that history.
“Huxwhukw. That’s what the name of the mask is. It’s a skull crusher mask. The meaning of it, it’s part of the history of war with our own people,” says Billy. “Some of them actually put skulls inside the mouth because that’s what they are. They’re skull crusher masks.”
The mask is also inspired by Hamat’sa dances that Billy used to be a part of on Quadra Island. In spite of being banned from 1884 to 1951, the dances have remained an important part of Indigenous culture in British Columbia.
So too has the beautiful artwork.
In a town that’s constantly changing, it’s important to have things that remind us of this place’s history and the people who were here long before we were. It was an absolute honour to host Billy at the lodge and we’re forever grateful to have The Great Room, which serves as the beating heart of the lodge, under the watchful eye of the Raven’s Mask.