Potlatch...a strict law bids us dance
Canada, 1975, Video, 53 min
Directors/Producers: Dennis Wheeler/U’Mista Cultural Society

Followed by public forum: Mining Collective Memory

Over the centuries, the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) people of the Northwest Coast developed a sophisticated culture based on the ceremonial “give-away” of surplus wealth. With the arrival of European settlers intent on the accumulation of property, traditional Indian society came under attack. For years, the Canadian government outlawed the potlatch, crushing a unique culture and seizing its artifacts to be studied and “protected”.

This internationally acclaimed film is based upon research compiled by the U’Mista Cultural Society of Alert Bay, BC and features testimony from Kwakiutl elders. Potlatch is narrated by Gloria Cranmer Webster, whose father Dan Cranmer came into conflict with the Canadian government when people were arrested at a potlatch he held in 1921. The Cranmer family continues to hold the potlatch today, in the tradition of their ancestors.

Followed by public forum: Mining Collective Memory