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Over the years, Masset, B.C., master carver Jaalen Edenshaw has advocated for clean energy use on the archipelago, a region that is disconnected from B.C. Hydro’s main electricity grid and mainly reliant on diesel.
Since last October, the Haida carver has been teaming up with brother Gwaai to carve a totem pole in honour of Skidgate hereditary chief Watson Pryce (Gaahlaay) at a workshop in Masset powered by 18 solar panels that can generate as much as 40 kWh of electricity a day — enough to fully charge a small electric car.
Edenshaw, a member of the Ts’aahl Eagle Clan, is renowned for his traditional creations, including masks, canoes, and 13-metre high red cedar totem poles that are on display in galleries around the world.
This week, Twitter Canada released an emoji that Edenshaw had designed for National Indigenous History Month.
The Twitter emoji for 2022 is called “Naxiin”, named after the type of imagery found in traditional textiles from the Tlingit people of the Chilkat (Jilkháat) region <a href=”https://t.co/2DyRdFcTg6″>pic.twitter.com/2DyRdFcTg6</a>
—@TwitterCanada
LISTEN | Jaalen Edenshaw talks about his Twitter emoji project for National Indigenous History Month:
Radio West6:12Haida Gwaii artist and carver Jaalen Edenshaw has a new emoji available now on Twitter as part of Indigenous History Month
He is also a director with the Swiilawiid Sustainability Society, a non-profit group based in Haida Gwaii pushing for alternatives to diesel as the region’s main energy source.
Haida Gwaii has been receiving provincial funding since 2019 to develop alternative energy, including wind and solar power. In January, the Skidgate First Nation received $800,000 in equity funding from the B.C. government to finance the First Nation’s solar farm project and the Northern Haida Gwaii Hospital’s heating project.
Edenshaw spoke to guest host Bill Fee on CBC’s Daybreak North about why he decided to carve his work at a solar-powered workstation in a region that is not exactly the sunniest place in the province.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
Why did you decide that the workshop would be solar-powered?
There’s been news for talks about how we’ll get off of diesel, but a lot of different plans are …….