Devilfish Bags

Devilfish bags, although a more modern form of regalia for the Ts’msyen people of British Columbia and Alaska, have a unique history. But in order to understand their significance, we have to start on the East Coast of North America. During the colonization of the Americas, indigenous peoples were brutally forced off our traditional lands, our ancestors were beaten, starved, and tortured for speaking our languages. They were forced to give up their traditions, their ways of life. They were given a choice; adapt to the new world, or die.

The ingenuity and resilience of indigenous people was extremely underestimated, however. Different groups of indigenous people began secretly creating a new language to speak to one another, and they did so through beadwork. They would use the beads colonizers traded with to create beautiful functional art such as bandolier bags. Every flower, every decorative boarder, every color had a specific meaning. They would trade these items with other tribes, and it became the new secret language of indigenous people that spread like wildfire across the continent. As this new language spread, so did the meanings, the materials, and the shape of the bags themselves. 

The Ts’msyen people, were the first to come into contact with these eloquently decorated bags on the Pacific North Coast. Immediately they began using them in the feast halls as a show of rank. Only the wealthiest chiefs wore them and traded them with the neighboring tribes, the Tlingit and Haida. Often they would wear not one, but three in order to establish rank. Bandolier bags that were once made out of animal hides, became wool, and soon developed the eight legs to mimic those of an octopus. Intricate floral designs turned into seaweed designs as a nod to the abundance of the Pacific Ocean as well as the Skeena and Nass Rivers.

Today, a combination of floral, seaweed, and now formline designs can be found on the  devilfish bags Kandi creates. Although the trade language of beadwork has fallen out of use for most, and anyone who can afford one can have a devilfish bag; Kandi's devilfish bags still hold deep meaning. Through her art, she is able to depict a persons name, crest, or clan. Her work is an ongoing effort to reclaim what was once taken from her people. Often her devilfish bags are titled in Sm’algya̱x, the language of the Ts’msyen. She is a language apprentice and advocate for the revitalization of indigenous languages and traditional ways of life.

Everything is connected.

There are old stories that tell of chiefs who would cut up intricate ravenstail or chilkat robes, copper shields, and even break or burn masks and other regalia. They would do this as a show of wealth, and power. But more importantly, it was a sign of respect to the person who would receive the pieces of the robe or copper shield. 

The first devilfish bag McGilton ever made witnessed feasts and celebrations, memorials and more. It is a reminder of the struggles indigenous people have overcome to take back their languages, their traditions, their art and their land.