If you haven’t already seen it, Part 1 of the I Seek Refuge in the Head of a Fish series is here. My spirit guides told me that when I started to make masks, my first mask should be a Salmon. And intuitively I had literally drawn the image of me wearing what would become my mask in the painting detailed in the first part of the series. I didn’t realise that this is what I had done, but when they explained it to me it seemed so obvious, how could I have not understood that at the beginning?

I’ve watched many Salmon documentaries about this fascinating fish, including some of indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest (USA)  who revere the Salmon and rightly so. See the links at the bottom of this post to some documentaries. The indigenous peoples have made great efforts to protect and restore their traditional fishing places, and campaigned for dam removal to help rewild many of the major rivers and their tributaries in the US. They hold specific Salmon ceremonies to welcome the Salmon back to the rivers and streams, always returning the first Salmon catch of the season to the water. I researched Salmon ceremonies in the UK (where I am from) and found out there is an annual crowning of the Salmon Queen ceremony in Berwick upon Tweed. Although the tradition for this ceremony is not very old, I do feel that it is probably an echo of a pagan ceremonial practise much older, to bring fertility and ensure another year of good fishing. Where salmon was plentiful, the local population would have relied on it heavily for food and livelihood.

The salmon used to come up the river Tame near to where my father lived as a child in Worcestershire. This is the river that he learned to swim in and the river that he brought us to as children to swim, play and mess about in a dinghy. It has always been a very special place for me both physically and spiritually. I have drawn an enormous amount of artistic and shamanic inspiration from this place, and so I felt it was the most fitting site to perform the healing ceremony with my Salmon mask.

My mask is made of recycled cardboard with layers of brown paper papier mache. It has then been painted inside and outside with layers of acrylic paint. A cardboard headband has been fitted inside with paracord straps to tie it under the chin – the weight of the mask falls largely at the front so it needs to be secured to stay on correctly. Wearing it feels strangely comforting. Rather like shutting the world out but being able to see from a vantage point while being protected. A bit like looking out a cave mouth. The noise of the world is lessened, it feels safe, warm and secure.

Links to YouTube Documentaries on the Indigenous Fishing Culture and Rights and the Fight to Restore Wild Salmon. (Links open in a new window).

The Salmon People Wy Kan Ush Pum
Lummi Fishing in the Salish Sea
Spirit of The Salmon People – The Muckleshoot Story
Artifishal – The Fight to Save Wild Salmon
Laxabjoo – A Salmon Nation – Patagonia Films