Florence Edenshaw Davidson (1896–1993) was a

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First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

artist from the Haida. She created basketry and button-blankets and was a respected elder in her village of

Masset Masset , formerly ''Massett'', is a village in Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Masset Sound on the northern coast of Graham Island, the largest island in the archipelago, and is approximately west of mainland British Col ...

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Heca ...

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Early life

Florence Edenshaw was born in Masset on September 15, 1896, the daughter of the Haida artist

Charles Edenshaw Charles Edenshaw (–1920) was a Haida artist"Master Artists: Charles Edensha ...

(Chief Idɨnsaw) and his wife

Isabella Isabella may refer to: People and fictional characters * Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Isabella (surname), including a list of people Places United States * Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...

(K'woiyəng). She was given the Haida name ''Jadał q'egəngá'' ("Story Maid"). As a child, she help her mother to sew button blankets. She was of the Raven moiety, of the Y'akwə'lanas lineage, and of the Shark House (''Q'ad Nas''), with crests that included Shark, Two-Finned Killerwhale, and Brown Bear.

Personal life

She married Robert Davidson (1880–1969), a Haida, on February 23, 1911, and had 13 children. Her daughter Primrose Adams, also an artist, was the 2011 recipient of the Creative Lifetime Achievement Award for First Nations' Art.

Career

Davidson became renowned for her blankets and for her spruce-root and cedar baskets. In the 1960s she was consultant on Haida culture and Masset history to the writer

Christie Harris Christie Lucy Harris, (November 21, 1907 – January 5, 2002) was a Canadian children's writer. She is best known for her portrayal of Haida First Nations culture in the 1966 novel ''Raven's Cry.'' Biography Harris was born in Newark, New Jer ...

, author of ''Raven's Cry.'' She was also a major consultant on

Haida language Haida (', ', ', ') is the language of the Haida people, spoken in the Haida Gwaii archipelago off the coast of Canada and on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. An endangered language, Haida currently has 24 native speakers, though revitalizat ...

to John Enrico. She became well known through her collaborative autobiography written with the anthropologist Margaret B. Blackman, published in 1982.

Death and legacy

Davidson died December 13, 1993. Her artistic legacy continues with her grandsons, the brother Reg Davidson and Robert Davidson, who are woodcarvers and sculptors.

Early life

Personal life

Career

Death and legacy

References

Further reading