Sculpture of raven

Description:	Many contemporary Northwest Coast artists are keeping Northwest Coast folklore alive through their art. This raven sculpture was carved by Kwagiulth artist Harris Smith of Vancouver Island, British Columbia in 2000. Raven is a central character in many Northwest Coast myths. Deceitful, dark and manipulative, he is known as a trickster and existed in the world before now, when the roles of humans and animals were not so well defined. Able to change form from animal to human to spirit, raven easily moved between the many worlds believed to exist. While Raven accomplished many feats, one of his most outstanding was bringing light to the world. Frustrated with living in a dark world without a smidgen of light, Raven discovered that the Sky God held light in a secret box in his house in the Sky. He began plotting how to steal the light. According to legend, he disguised himself as the Sky Gods (Keeper of the Light) grandson in order to gain access to the magical box that held all of the light in the world--the Sun, the Moon and the stars. In the end, he fooled the Sky God and released light into the world.
Source:	http://www.digitalindy.org/cdm/ref/collection/tcm/id/815
Collection:	The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Rights:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/;
Copyright:	Creative Commons (CC By-SA 3.0);
Subjects:	Indians of North America Indians of North America -- Northwest Coast of North America Indians of North America -- Folklore Raven (Legendary character) Tricksters Sculpture

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