The Way Home
CBC Books | | Posted: September 29, 2020 6:10 PM | Last Updated: December 1, 2020
David A. Neel
David Neel was an infant when his father, a traditional Kwakiutl artist, returned to the ancestors, triggering a series of events that would separate David from his homeland and its rich cultural traditions for twenty-five years. When he saw a potlatch mask carved by his great-great-grandfather in a museum in Fort Worth, Texas, the encounter inspired the young photographer to rekindle a childhood dream to follow in the footsteps of his father.
Drawing on memories, legends, and his own art and portrait photography, David Neel recounts his struggle to reconnect with his culture after decades of separation and a childhood marred by trauma and abuse. He returned to the Pacific Coast in 1987, where he apprenticed with master carvers from his father's village. The art of his ancestors and the teachings of the people he met helped make up for the lost years and fuelled his creativity. His career as a multimedia artist also gave him the opportunity to meet and photograph leading artists, knowledgeable elders, and prominent people from around the world. In time he was a recognized artist, with his artwork presented in more than forty solo and sixty group exhibitions.
The Way Home is an uplifting tale that affirms the healing power of returning home. It is also a testament to the strength of the human spirit to overcome great obstacles, and to the power and endurance of Indigenous culture and art.
This memoir is a must-read for anyone interested in Canadian art and artists, particularly Indigenous art, as well as those learning about or active in cultural revitalization in Indigenous communities. (From University of British Columbia Press)
The Way Home was on the shortlist for the 2020 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
Neel is a carver, jeweller, painter, printmaker, writer and photographer who is a member of the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation in British Columbia. The Way Home is his third book, he is also the author of Our Chiefs and Elders and The Great Canoes.
- The best Canadian nonfiction of 2020
- David A. Neel reflects on reconnecting with his Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw heritage in his memoir The Way Home
From the book
When I began to organize the material for this book, it took a great deal of soul-searching to decide what to include and what to leave out. Initially, I thought the book would describe my unusual art practice, which includes woodcarving, hand engraving, photography, writing, painting and printmaking. But I soon realized that an account of how I found my way back to the traditions and culture of my father's people after two and a half decades away was a story worth telling. My people, the Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw, the traditional inhabitants of the coastal areas of northeastern Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia, have a rich traditional culture that includes masks, dances, canoes, totem poles, stories and much more. My father, an artist, returned to the ancestors when I was an infant, and for many years I lost the connection with that aspect of my life. Shortly after his death, in 1962, my mother and I moved away, and I began a circuitous journey that wouldn't take me back to British Columbia until 1987.
Excerpted from The Way Home by David A. Neel Copyright © 2020 David A. Neel Published by University of British Columbia Press. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.